Itching  Palm 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  HABIT 
OF  TIPPING   IN   AMERICA 


By 

WILLIAM  R.  SCOTT 

Author  of 

The  Americans  in  Panama" 
"Scientific  Circulation  Management  "  Etc. 


THE    PENN    PUBLISHING 
COMPANY    PHILADELPHIA 

1916 


*£*< 


COPYRIGHT 
1916  BY 
THE  PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 


The  Itching  Palm 


THE  AUTHOR  WILL  BE  PLEASED  TO  COR- 
RESPOND WITH  ANY  READER  WHO  APPROVES 
OF,  OR  HAS  COMMENTS  TO  MAKE  UPON,  THE 
ATTITUDE  TAKEN  IN  THIS  BOOK  TOWARD 
THE  TIPPING  CUSTOM. 

WILLIAM  R.   SCOTT. 
PADUCAH,  KENTUCKY. 


O  Q  O  i  O  O 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  FLUNKYISM  IN  AMERICA    ....       7 

II  ON  PERSONAL  LIBERTY      .      .      .      .      10 

III  BARBARY  PIRATES 15 

IV  PERSONNEL  AND  DISTRIBUTION      .      .      19 
V  THE  ECONOMICS  OF  TIPPING        .      .      26 

VI  THE  ETHICS  OF  TIPPING  .       ...     36 

VII  THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TIPPING      .      .     47 

VIII  THE  LITERATURE  OF  TIPPING       .      .     58 

IX  TIPPING  AND  THE  STAGE   ....      68 

X  THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT     ...     73 

XI  THE  EMPLOYER  VIEWPOINT    ...     88 

XII  ONE  STEP  FORWARD 97 

XIII  THE  SLEEPING-CAR  PHASE      .      .      .    105 

XIV  THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  TIPPING  .      .113 
XV  LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING      .      .      .      .122 

XVI  SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING       .      .   144 

XVII  THE  WAY  OUT 158 

INDEX  .      .      .169 


THE  ITCHING  PALM 


FLUNKYISM  IN  AMERICA 

V 

"  OLIVER  CROMWELL  struck  a  mortal  blow 
at  the  universal  heart  of  Flunkyism,"  wrote 
Carlyle  of  the  execution  of  Charles  I. 

Yet,  Flunkyism  is  not  dead! 

In  the  United  States  alone  more  than  5,- 
000,000  persons  derive  their  incomes,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  from  "  tips,"  or  gratuities.  They 
have  the  moral  malady  denominated  The  Itch- 
ing Palm. 

Tipping  is  the  modern  form  of  Flunkyism. 
Flunkyism  may  be  defined  as  a  willingness  to  be 
servile  for  a  consideration.  It  is  democracy's 
deadly  foe.  The  two  ideas  cannot  live  together 
except  in  a  false  peace.  The  tendency  always 
is  for  one  to  sap  the  vitality  of  the  other. 

The  full  significance  of  the  foregoing  figures 


8  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

is  realized  in  the  further  knowledge  that  these 
5,000,000  persons  with  itching  palms  are  fully 
10  per  cent  of  our  entire  industrial  population; 
for  the  number  of  persons  engaged  in  gainful 
occupations  in  this  country  is  less  than  50,- 
000,000. 

Whether  this  constitutes  a  problem  for 
moralists,  economists  and  statesmen  depends 
upon  the  ethical  appraisement  of  tipping.  If 
tipping  is  moral,  the  interest  is  reduced  to  the 
economic  phase  —  whether  the  remuneration 
thus  given  is  normal  or  abnormal.  If  tipping 
is  immoral,  the  fact  that  5,000,000  Americans 
practice  it  constitutes  a  problem  of  first  rate 
importance. 

Accurate  statistics  are  not  obtainable,  but 
conservative  estimates  place  the  amount  of 
money  given  in  one  year  by  the  American 
people  in  tips,  or  gratuities,  at  a  figure  some- 
where between  $200,000,000  and  $500,000,000 ! 

Now  we  have  the  full  statement  of  the  case 
against  tipping  —  five  million  persons  receiving 
in  excess  of  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  for 
—  what  ?_] 

It  will  be  interesting  to  examine  the  ethics, 


FLUNKYISM  IN  AMERICA  9 

economics  and  psychology  of  tipping  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  American  people  receive  a 
value  for  this  expenditure. 


II 

ON  PERSONAL  LIBERTY 

THE  Itching  Palm  is  a  moral  disease.  It  is 
as  old  as  the  passion  of  greed  in  the  human 
mind.  Milton  was  thinking  of  it  when  he  ex- 
claimed : 

"  Help  us  to  save  free  conscience  from  the  paw, 
Of  hireling  wolves  whose  gospel  is  their  maw." 

Although  it  had  only  a  feeble  lodgment  in 
the  minds  of  the  Puritans,  because  their  minds 
were  in  the  travail  that  gave  birth  to  democracy, 
enough  remained  to  perpetuate  the  disease,  fin 
Europe,  under  monarchical  ideals,  a  person 
could  accept  a  tip  without  feeling  the  acute 
loss  of  self-respect  that  attends  the  practice 
in  America,  under  democratic  ideals.  Forx  tip- 
is  essentially  an  aristocratic  custom.; 


TIPPING    UN-AMERICAN 

If  it   seems   astounding  that  this   aristocratic 

practice  should  reach  such  stupendous  propor- 
10 


ON  PERSONAL  LIBERTY  11 

tions  in  a  republic,  we  must  remember  that  the 
same  republic  allowed  slavery  to  reach  stupen- 
dous proportions. 

IF    TIPPING    IS    UN-AMERICAN,    SOME    DAY, 

SOMEHOW,    IT    WILL    BE    UPROOTED 

LIKE  AFRICAN    SLAVERY 

Apparently  the  American  conscience  is  dor- 
mant upon  this  issue.  But  this  is  more  appar- 
ent than  real.  The  people  are  stirring  vaguely 
and  uneasily  over  the  ethics  of  the  custom.  Six 
State  Legislatures  reflected  the  dawning  of  a 
new  conscience  by  considering  in  their  1915 
sessions  bills  relating  to  tipping.  They  were 
Wisconsin,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  Tennessee  * 
and  South  Carolina. 

The  geographical  distribution  of  these  States 
is  significant.  It  is  proof  that  the  opposition 
to  the  practice  is  not  isolated,  not  sectional, 
but  national.  North,  Central,  South,  the  ver- 
dict was  registered  that  tipping  is  wrong.  The 
South,  former  home  of  slavery,  might  be  sup- 
posed to  be  favorable  to  this  aristocratic  cus- 
tom. On  the  contrary  the  most  vigorous  op- 
position to  it  is  found  there.  Mississippi,  / 
Arkansas,  Tennessee,  and  South  Carolina  simul- 


IS  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

taneously  had  laws  against  tipping  —  with  the 
usual  contests  in  the  courts  on  their  constitu- 
tionality. 

<(The  Negro  was  servile  by  law  and  inheritance. 
The  modern  tip-taker  voluntarily  assumes,  in 
a  republic  where  he  is  actually  and  theoretically 
equal  to  all  other  citizens,  a  servile  attitude 
for  a  fee.^  While  the  form  of  servitude  is  dif- 
ferent, the  slavery  is  none  the  less  real  in  the 
case  of  the  tip-taker. 

Strangely  enough,  bills  to  prohibit  tipping 
often  have  been  vetoed  by  Governors  —  notably 
in  Wisconsin  —  on  the  ground  that  they  cur- 
tailed personal  liberty.  That  is  to  say,  a  bill 
which  removed  the  chains  of  social  slavery  from 
the  serving  classes  was  declared  to  be  an  abridg- 
ment of  liberty !  "  Oh,  Liberty,  how  many 
crimes  are  committed  in  thy  name ! " 

The  Legislature  in  Wisconsin  almost  re- 
passed  the  bill  over  the  Governor's  veto.  In 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky  bills  have  been  vetoed 
for  the  same  given  reason,  though  Tennessee 
in  1916  finally  had  such  a  law  in  force.  In 
Illinois,  the  law  was  framed  primarily  with  the 
object  of  preventing  the  leasing  of  privileges  to 
collect  tips  in  hotels  and  other  public  places, 


ON  PERSONAL  LIBERTY  13 

and  not  against  the  individual  giver  or  taker  of 
tips. 

SHORT-LIVED    LAWS 

The  courts  have  negatived  such  laws  on  much 
the  same  grounds,  so  that  anti-tipping  laws 
thus  far  have  been,  generally,  short-lived.  The 
reason  is,  of  course,  that  popular  sentiment  has 
not  been  behind  the  laws  in  an  extent  sufficient 
to  give  them  power.  Judges  and  executives  sim- 
ply have  yielded  to  their  own  class  impulses, 
and  the  pressure  from  organized  interests,  to  , 
suppress  the  legislation.  When  the  public  con-  V 
science  finds  itself  and  becomes  organized  and 
articulate,  they  will  have  no  difficulty  in  find- 
ing grounds  for  declaring  regulatory  laws  con- 
stitutional. The  history  of  the  prohibition  of 
the  liquor  business  is  a  parallel. 

PERSONAL    LIBERTY 

Personal  liberty  is  a  phrase  that  is  being  re- 
defined in  America  in  every  decade.  In  its 
broadest  sense  it  is  interpreted  to  mean  that  a 
man  has  the  right  to  go  to  perdition  if  he  so 
elects  without  neighbors  or  the  government  tak- 
ing note  or  interfering. 

Anti-liquor  laws  in  the  early  day»  of  the 


14  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

temperance  movement  fared  badly  from  this  in- 
terpretation, just  as  anti-tipping  laws  fare  to- 
day. But  as  public  sentiment  crystallized,  and 
judges  and  executives  began  to  feel  the  pressure 
at  the  polls,  a  new  conception  of  personal  lib- 
erty developed.  In  its  present  accepted  sense, 
as  regards  liquor,  it  is  interpreted  to  mean  that 
no  citizen  may  act  or  live  in  a  way  that  is  detri- 
mental to  himself,  his  neighbor  or  his  govern- 
ment, and  his  privilege  to  drink  liquor  is 
abridged  or  abolished  at  will. 

The  right  to  give  tips  is  not  inalienable.  It 
is  not  grounded  on  personal  liberty.  If  the 
public  conscience  reaches  the  conviction  that 
tipping  is  detrimental  to  democracy,  that  it 
destroys  that  fineness  of  self-respect  requisite  in 
a  republic,  the  right  will  be  abridged  or  with- 
drawn. 


in 

BARBARY  PIRATES 

THE  American  people  became  fully  aroused 
on  one  occasion  to  the  iniquity  of  tipping  —  on 
an  international  scale. 

In  1801  President  Jefferson  decided  that  the 
United  States  could  tolerate  no  longer  the  sys- 
tem of  tribute  enforced  by  the  Barbary  States 
along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 

Before  our  action,  no  European  government 
had  made  more  than  fitful,  ineffectual  attempts 
to  break  up  a  practice  at  once  humiliating  to 
national  honor  and  disastrous  to  national  com- 
merce. Candor  requires  the  admission  that 
we,  too,  submitted  for  years  to  this  system  of 
paying  tribute  to  Barbary  pirates  for  an  un- 
molested passage  of  our  ships,  but  the  signifi- 
cant fact  is  that  American  manhood  did  finally 
and  successfully  revolt  against  the  practice. 

By  1805  our  naval  forces  had  brought  the 

pirates  to  their  knees  and  all  Europe  breathed 
15 


16  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

grateful  sighs  of  relief.  Even  the  Pope  com- 
mended the  American  achievement.  The  prac- 
tice was  contrary  to  every  dictate  of  self-re- 
spect. 

TRIBUTE 

These  pirates  of  Algiers,  Tunis,  Morocco  and 
Tripoli  did  not  pretend  to  have  any  other  right 
behind  their  demands  for  tribute  than  the  right 
they  could  enforce  with  cutlass  and  cannon  — 
a  right  ferociously  employed.  It  was  not  rob- 
bery in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word.  They 
demanded  a  fee  based  on  the  value  of  the  cargo 
for  the  privilege  of  sailing  in  the  Mediterranean, 
and  this  being  paid,  the  ship  could  proceed  to 
its  destination.  Ship-owners  soon  began  to 
figure  tribute  as  a  fixed  expense  of  navigation, 
like  insurance,  and  passed  the  added  cost  along 
to  the  ultimate  consumer. 

This  practice  of  paying  tribute  was  a  system 
of  international  tipping.  The  Barbary  pirates 
granted  immunity  to  those  who  obeyed  the  cus- 
tom, but  made  it  decidedly  warm  and  expensive 
for  those  who  dared  to  protest  against  it  — 
just  as  do  our  modern  pirates  in  hotels,  sleeping 
cars,  restaurants,  barber  shops  and  elsewhere. 


BARBARY  PIRATES  17 

If  a  ship  refused  to  pay  tribute  it  was  sunk, 
and  the  sailors  went  to  slavery  in  the  desert, 
or  to  death  by  fearful  torture.  President  Jef- 
ferson could  not  see  any  basis  of  right  in  the 
position  of  the  Barbary  States  that  the  Medi- 
terranean was  their  private  lake  through  which 
ships  could  not  pass  without  paying  toll.  He 
sent  Decatur  to  register  our  protest. 

With  the  Pinckney  slogan :  "  MILLIONS  FOR 

DEFENSE NOT    ONE    CENT    FOR   TRIBUTE  !  "   the 

American  naval  forces  made  good  our  position. 
The  tips  that  skippers  of  our  nation  had  been 
paying  to  the  pirates  were  saved  and  the  cus- 
tom soon  was  abandoned  by  other  nations. 
»  +  +  +  +  • 

To-day,  the  old  battle  cry  is  reversed  to  read : 
"  Millions  for  tribute  —  not  one  cent  for  de- 
fense!" 

It  is  certain  that  a  greater  tribute  is  paid 
in  one  week  in  the  United  States  in  the  form  of 
tips,  than  our  merchantmen  paid  during  the 
whole  period  that  they  knuckled  to  the  Barbary 
pirates. 

In  New  York  City  alone  more  than  $100,000 
a  day  is  paid  in  gratuities  to  waiters,  hotel  em- 
ployes, chauffeurs,  barbers  and  allied  classes. 


18  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

But  New  York  has  reached  a  subserviency  to 
the  tipping  custom  that  is  amazing  in  a  demo- 
cratic country. 

This  vast  tribute  is  paid  for  not  more  real 
service  than  the  Barbary  pirates  rendered  to 
those  from  whom  they  exacted  tribute.  It  is 
given  to  workers  who  are  paid  by  their  em- 
ployers to  perform  the  services  enjoyed  by  the 
public.  If  the  Barbary  pirates  could  see  the 
ease  with  which  a  princely  tribute  is  exacted 
from  a  docile  public  by  the  tip-takers,  they 
would  yearn  to  be  reincarnated  as  waiter*  in 
America  —  the  Land  of  the  Fee ! 


IV 

PERSONNEL  AND  DISTRIBUTION 

THE  Itching  Palm  is  not  limited  to  the  serv- 
ing classes.  It  is  found  among  public  officials, 
where  it  is  particularized  as  grafting,  and  it  is 
found  among  store  buyers,  purchasing  agents, 
traveling  salesmen  and  the  like,  and  takes  the 
form  of  splitting  commissions.  There  are 
varied  manifestations  of  the  disease,  but  whether 
the  amount  of  the  gratuity  is  ten  cents  to  a 
waiter  or  $10,000  to  a  captain  of  police,  the 
practice  is  the  same. 
/This  is  a  partial  list  of  those  affected : 

Baggagemen  Chauffeurs 

Barbers  Charwomen 

Bartenders  Coachmen 

Bath  attendants  Cooks 

Bellboys  Door  men 

Bootblacks  Elevator  men 

Butlers  Garbage  men 

Cab  drivers  Guides 

19 


20  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

Hatboys  Mail  carriers 

Housekeepers  Pullman  porters 

Janitors  Rubbish  collectors 

Maids  Steamship  stewards 

Manicurists  Theater  attendants 

Messengers  Waiters 

The  foregoing  list  is  not  offered  as  a  complete 
roster  of  those  who  regularly  or  occasionally 
receive  tips.  Nearly  every  one  can  think  of 
additions,  and  at  Christmas  the  list  is  extended 
to  include  money  gifts  to  policemen,  delivery 
men  and  numerous  others. 

THE    TIP-TAKING    CLASSES 

At  the  last  Census,  in  1910,  there  were  38,- 
167,336  persons  in  the  United  States,  out  of  a 
total  population  of  ninety-odd  millions,  who 
were  engaged  in  gainful  occupations,  that  is, 
who  worked  for  specified  wages  or  salaries.  Of 
this  number,  3,772,174  persons  were  engaged  in 
domestic  or  personal  service,  or  practically  ten 
per  cent,  of  the  industrial  population. 

This  means  that  in  round  numbers  4,000,000 
Americans  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages  were  en- 
gaged in  the  lines  of  work  specified  in  the  fore- 
going list,  with  certain  additions  as  mentioned. 


PERSONNEL  AND  DISTRIBUTION      21 


These  are  the  citizens  who  profit  by  the  tip- 
ping practice. 

Since  1910  the  growth  in  population  to  one 
hundred  millions,  and  the  steadily  widening 
spread  of  the  tipping  practice  will  increase  the 
beneficiaries  of  tipping  to  5,000,000.  An  idea 
of  the  relative  distribution  of  the  total  may  be 
obtained  from  the  statistics  of  fifty  leading 
cities.  The  numbers  represent  the  tip-taking 
classes  in  each  city. 


CITY  NUMBER 

Albany    8,000 

Atlanta 23,000 

Baltimore    .  . .  48,000 

Birmingham    .  16,000 

Boston 61,000 

Bridgeport    .  .  5,200 

Buffalo    25,000 

Cambridge  . .  .  7,500 

Chicago 135,000 

Cincinnati  .  .  .  30,000 

Cleveland    .  .  .  31,000 

Columbus    .  .  .  14,000 

Dayton    6,500 

Denver    17,000 

Detroit    26,000 

Fall  River  .  .  .  4,000 

Grand  Rapids  5,500 

Indianapolis    .  19,000 


CITY 

Jersey  City  . 
Kansas  City. 
Los  Angeles. 

Lowell 

Louisville    .  . 
Memphis    .  .  . 
Milwaukee  .  . 
Minneapolis 
Nashville  .  .  . 
New  Haven  . 
New  Orleans 
New  York .  . 
Newark 
Oakland     .  .  . 
Omaha 
Paterson    .  .  . 
Philadelphia 
Pittsburgh    . 


NUMBER 
.  14,000 
.  24,000 
.  26,000 
.  5,500 
.  23,000 
.  19,000 
.  22,000 
.  19,000 
.  15,000 
.  9,000 
.  37,000 
.400,000 
.  17,000 
.  11,000 
.  10,000 
.  5,000 
.105,000 
.  41,000 


22  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

Portland 17,000     Scranton 6,000 

Providence    .  .  14,000     Seattle     19,000 

Richmond    .  .  .  15,000     Spokane    7,000 

Rochester    .  . .  13,000     Syracuse 9,000 

St.  Louis 56,000     Toledo     9,500 

St.  Paul 16,000  Washington    .  43,000 

San  Francisco  44,000  Worcester     .  .  9,000 

In  all  other  cities,  towns  and  hamlets  there 
are  proportionate  quotas  to  bring  the  grand 
total  to  5,000,000.  Any  estimate  of  the  daily 
tipping  tribute  for  the  whole  country  neces- 
sarily is  only  an  approximation,  but  $600,000 
is  a  conservative  figure.  At  this  rate  the  an- 
nual tribute  is  around  $220,000,000. 

IN    NEW   YORK    ALONE 

Taking  New  York  with  its  400,000  persons 
who  profit  from  tipping,  the  leading  classes  of 
beneficiaries  are  as  follows : 

Barbers 20,000  Janitors    25,000 

Bartenders    ...12,000  Manicurists     ..   4,500 

Bellboys    2,500  Messengers    .  .  .    1,500 

Bootblacks    ...   3,500  Porters    15,000 

Chauffeurs    .  .  .12,000  Waiters 35,000 

The  tipping  to  these  and  other  classes  varies 
both  in  amount  and  regularity.  Waiters  and 
manicurists  in  the  better-class  places  receive  no 


PERSONNEL  AND  DISTRIBUTION      23 

pay  from  their  employers  and  depend  entirely 
upon  tips  for  their  compensation.  Barbers  and 
chauffeurs  are  classes  which  receive  wages  and 
supplement  them  with  tips.  Sometimes  the  em- 
ployer will  pay  wages  and  require  that  all  tips 
be  turned  in  to  the  house. 

^It  is  a  common  feature  of  the  "  Help 
Wanted  "  columns  to  state  that  the  job  is  de- 
sirable to  the  workers  because  of  "  good  tips."^ 
Thus  the  employers  are  fully  alert  to  the  eco- 
nomic advantage  of  tipping,  and  wherever  it  is 
practicable  they  throw  upon  their  patrons  the 
entire  cost  of  servant  hire. 

The  extent  to  which  employers  are  exploiting 
the  public  is  realized  vaguely,  if  at  all.  The 
vein  of  generosity  and  the  fear  of  violating  a 
social  convention  can  be  worked  profitably,  and 
they  are  in  league  with  their  employees  to  make  / 
it  assay  the  maximum  amount  to  the  patron.  $/ 

In  a  restaurant  where  the  employer  has  thus 
shifted  the  cost  of  waiter  hire  to  the  shoulders  of 
the  public,  the  patron  who  conscientiously  ob- 
jects to  tipping  has  not  the  slightest  chance  in 
the  world  of  a  square  deal  in  competition  with 
the  patron  who  pays  tribute,  although  he  pays 
as  much  for  the  food. 


24  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

/A  waiter,  knowing  that  his  compensation  de- 
pends upon  what  he  can  work  out  of  his  patron, 
employs  every  art  to  stimulate  the  tipping  pro- 
pensity, from  subtle  flattery  to  out-right  bull- 
dozing. He  weaves  a  spell  of  obligation  around 
a  patron  as  tangible,  if  invisible,  as  the  web  a 
spider  weaves  around  a  fly.  He  plays  as  con- 
sciously upon  the  patron's  fear  of  social  usage 
as  the  musician  in  the  alcove  plays  upon  his 
violin.X 

This  is  a  particularly  bad  ethical  and  eco- 
nomic situation  from  any  viewpoint.  The  pa- 
tron, getting  only  one  service,  pays  two  persons 
for  it  —  the  employer  and  the  employee.  The 
payment  to  the  employer  is  fixed,  but  to  the  em- 
ployee it  is  dependent  upon  the  whim  of  the  pa- 
tron. To  make  this  situation  normal,  the  pa- 
tron should  pay  only  once,  and  this  should  cover 
both  the  cost  of  the  food  and  the  services  of  the 
waiter.  Theoretically  this  is  the  present  idea 
under  the  common  law,  but  actually  the  patron 
is  required,  through  fear  of  well-defined  penal- 
ties, to  pay  twice. 

Naturally,  if  the  $200,000,000  or  more  an- 
nually given  to  those  serving  the  public  should 
be  withdrawn  suddenly,  employers  would  face  the 


PERSONNEL  AND  DISTRIBUTION      25 

necessity  of  a  radical  readjustment  of  wage 
systems.  In  many  lines  wages  would  be  in- 
creased to  a  normal  basis,  either  at  the  expense 
of  the  employer's  profits,  or  through  additional 
charges  to  patrons.  Before  going  further  into 
the  employer  phase  of  the  practice,  the  eco- 
nomics of  tipping  in  individual  instances  will  be 
an  interesting  study. 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  TIPPING 


THE  basic  question  is,  does  tipping  represent 
a  sound  exchange  of  wealth?  Do  the  American 
people  receive  full  value,  or  any  value,  for  the 
$200,000,000  or  more  given  in  tips? 

Values,  of  course,  may  be  sentimental  as  well 
as  substantial  and,  so  far  as  tipping  is  con- 
cerned, it  can  be  demonstrated  that  if  any 
values  are  received  they  are  sentimental.  The 
satisfaction  of  giving,  the  balm  to  vanity,  the 
indulgence  of  pride,  are  the  values  obtained  by 
the  giver  of  a  tip  in  exchange  for  his  money. 

It  is  a  stock  argument  for  tipping  that  the 
person  serving  frequently  performs  extra  serv- 
ices, or  displays  special  painstaking,  which  de- 
serve extra  compensation.  Only  an  examina- 
tion of  individual  instances  can  determine 
whether  this  is  true.  The  proportion  of  the 
tipping  tribute  which  really  pays  for  extraor- 
dinary service  is  negligible.  A  brief  inquiry 
26 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  TIPPING         27 

into  a  few  of  the  more  prominent  instances  of 
tipping  follows. 

THE    WAITER 

If  food  is  sold  undelivered,  then  the  waiter  in 
bringing  it  to  the  patron  and  assisting  him  in  its 
consumption  does  perform  an  extra  service  for 
which  payment  is  due. 

But  this  is  not  the  fact,  any  more  than  that 
a  shoe  clerk  should  be  tipped  for  assisting  a  cus- 
tomer in  the  selection  of  his  employer's  foot- 
wear. In  both  instances,  the  cost  of  the  serv- 
ice is  included  in  the  price  of  the  article  —  food 
or  shoes. 

The  prices  on  the  bill  of  fare  have  been  figur 
to  include  all  costs  of  serving  it,  such  as  cook- 
hire,  waiter-hire,  rent,  music,  table  ware,  raw 
materials  and  overhead  charges.  If  a  sirloin 
steak  costs  seventy-five  cents  a  definite  part  of 
that  amount  represents  the  wages  of  the  waiter 
serving  it. 

Thus  the  waiter  has  no  claim  upon  the  patron 
for  compensation,  because  the  patron,  in  paying 
for  the  food,  provides  the  proprietor  with  funds 
from  which  the  waiter's  wages  will  be  paid.  If 
the  patron,  in  addition,  gives  the  waiter  a  tip  it 


28  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

is  clearly  a  gift  for  which  no  value  has  been  re- 
turned. The  waiter  is  paid  twice  for  one  serv- 
ice. A/ 

ECONOMIC    WASTE 

The  question  then  recurs,  is  this  gift  to  the 
waiter  a  sound  economic  transaction?  Econo- 
mists teach  that  no  transaction  is  industrially 
sound  which  does  not  involve  an  equal  exchange 
of  values.  The  exchange  of  five  dollars  for  a 
pair  of  shoes  is  a  sound  transaction  because  the 
dealer  and  the  customer  each  receive  a  value. 
But  the  gift  of  a  quarter  to  a  waiter  as  a  tip  is 
an  unsound  transaction  because  the  patron  re- 
ceives nothing  in  return  —  nothing  of  like  sub- 
stantiality. 

The  patron  may  justify  the  gift  from  senti- 
mental considerations,  of  pride,  generosity  or 
fear  of  violating  a  social  convention,  but  no 
sophistry  of  reasoning  can  prove  that  a  sub- 
stantial value  has  been  received. 

Of  course,  a  waiter  may  give  a  patron  more 
than  the  proprietor  agrees  to  give  in  the  bill  of 
fare,  and  this  undoubtedly  is  an  extra  service  — 
but  it  is  also  a  dishonest  service.  Every  extra 
service  to  one  patron  means  a  deficiency  of  serv- 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  TIPPING        29 

ice  to  other  patrons.  It  is  a  common  experience 
that  liberal  tipping  obtains  special  attentions 
which  non-tipping  patrons  miss,  but,  being  dis- 
honest, such  a  condition  is  outside  the  scope  of 
this  inquiry.  When  a  patron  pays  for  food  he 
is  entitled  to  adequate  and  equal  service,  and  no 
largess  by  other  patrons  should  interfere  with 
this  basic  right. 

On  its  economic  side,  then,  tipping  is  wrong. £ 
Wealth  is  exchanged  without  both  parties  to  the 
transaction   receiving   fair   values.     The   psy- 
chology and  ethics  of  the  transaction  will  be 
considered  in  other  chapters. 

THE    BARBER 

No  tipping  is  so  inexcusable  as  that  which  is 
done  to  a  barber.  The  trade  is  highly  or- 
ganized and  the  workers  are  well-paid  under 
good  working  conditions.  There  is  not  the 
slightest  chance  for  the  barber  to  serve  a  patron 
in  a  way  for  which  the  patron  does  not  pay  in 
the  shop  tariffs. 

If  a  haircut  costs  thirty-five  cents,  the  patron 

*    is  entitled  to  just  as  good  a  hair-cut  as  the 

barber  can  give.     The  patron  enters  the  shop 

upon  the  assumption  that  he  is  entitled  to  a  sat- 


30  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

isfactory  service.  Hence,  in  tipping  a  barber  a 
patron  is  yielding  in  a  peculiarly  timid  way  to 
the  mesmeric  influence  which  the  tipping  custom 
exerts  over  its  devotees. 

It  is  a  wanton  waste  of  wealth,  an  unsound 
business  transaction,  because  money  is  given 
where  charity  is  unnecessary  and  where  abso- 
lutely nothing  is  given  in  return.  "  But  my 
barber  takes  lots  of  pains  with  my  hair,'5  the 
patron  exclaims  in  justification  of  the  tip.  As 
in  the  instance  of  the  waiter,  if  he  takes  more 
than  a  normal  amount  of  pains  with  your  hair 
he  is  dishonest  to  his  employer  and  to  other  pa- 
trons whom  he  must  neglect  to  pay  you  special 
attention.  Your  right  is  to  a  satisfactory  serv- 
ice, and  this  you  pay  for  in  the  regular  charge. 
Any  extra  compensation  is  unearned  increment 
to  the  barber. 

The  unctuous  manner  he  employs  to  arouse  a 
sense  of  obligation  in  a  patron,  when  stripped  of 
disguises,  is  a  plain  hold-up  game.  This  will  be 
shown  in  the  consideration  of  the  psychology 
and  ethics  of  tipping. 

THE    HOTELr 

The  attitude  that  hotel  employees  have  been 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  TIPPING        31 

allowed  to  develop  toward  the  public  is  a  blot 
upon  professional  hospitality. 

Every  one  of  them  takes  the  hotel  patron  for 
fair  game.  And  the  hotel  proprietor,  with  a 
few  notable  exceptions,  encourages  this  despic- 
able attitude.  The  assumption  is  that  the  pa- 
tron pays  at  the  desk  only  for  the  privilege  of  \^ 
being  in  the  building. 

Hence,  they  will  not  cheerfully  move  his  bag- 
gage to  his  room  unless  he  pays  to  get  it  there. 
He  cannot  have  a  pitcher  of  ice  water  without 
being  made  to  feel  that  he  owes  for  the  service. 
The  maid  who  cares  for  his  room  exacts  her  toll. 
The  head  waiter  demands  payment  for  showing 
him  to  a  seat.  The  individual  waiters  at  each 
meal  (and  they  are  changed  each  meal  by  the 
head-waiter  so  that  the  patron  has  a  new  tip 
to  give  each  time  he  dines)  require  fees.  If  he 
rings  a  bell,  asks  any  assistance,  goes  out  the 
door  to  a  cab,  in  short,  whichever  way  he  turns, 
an  itching  palm  is  outstretched! 

Just  think  for  a  moment  of  the  real  signifi- 
cance of  this   state  of  affairs.     Hotel  hospi-    L-^ 
tality?     Why,  the  Barbary  pirates  would  have 
been  ashamed  to  go  it  that  strong ! 

To  ignore  this  grafting  spirit  means  insult- 


32  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

ing  annoyance.  The  suave  hotel  manager 
listens  to  your  complaint  and  smiles  assurance 
that  his  guests  shall  have  proper  service,  but 
underneath  the  smile  he  has  a  contempt  for  the 
"  tight-wad,"  and  instructs  the  cashier  always 
to  give  the  waiters  small  change  so  as  to  make 
tipping  easy  for  the  patrons. 

In  truth,  what  does  a  hotel  guest  pay  for 
when  he  registers?  Certainly  for  the  service  of 
the  bell-boy  who  carries  his  suit-case  to  his 
room ;  for  the  keeping  of  the  room  in  order ;  for 
water,  clean  towels  and  other  necessities  for  his 
comfort;  for  the  privilege  of  finding  a  seat  in 
the  dining  room ;  for  the  right  to  use  the  doors 
—  all  without  extra  charge. 

But  the  hotel  manager  admits  this  in  theory 
and  outrageously  violates  it  in  practice.  All 
tipping  done  to  bell-boys,  porters,  maids,  wait- 
ers, door  men,  hat-boys  and  other  servitors  in  a 
hotel  is  sheer  economic  waste.  When  the  guest 
/  pays  his  bill  at  the  desk  he  pays  for  all  the  serv- 
ice they  perform. 

The  hotel  manager  protests  that  the  money 
that  passes  between  his  guests  and  his  employees 
is  not  his  affair.  But  he  proves  his  insincerity 
by  adjusting  his  wage  scale  on  the  estimate  that 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  TIPPING        33 

the  guests  will  pass  money  to  his  employees ! 
Professional   hospitality   as   "enjoyed"   by 
Americans  is  a  travesty  on  democracy.     That 
Europe  should  have  such  a  system  and  spirit  is 
historically  understandable.     Tipping,  and  the 
aristocratic  idea  it  exemplifies,  is  what  we  left      / 
Europe  to  escape.     It  is  a  cancer  in  the  breast  ^ 
of  democracy. 

THE    CHAUFFEUR 

It  would  be  possible  to  run  through  all  the 
classes  tipped  and  prove  that  the  extra  com- 
pensation is  unearned.  The  chauffeur  is  a  lat- 
ter-day instance  of  the  itching  palm.  Like  the 
barber,  the  chauffeur  is  paid  well  for  his  work. 
He  does  nothing  for  which  the  patron  should 
give  him  a  tip.  The  taxi-meter  charges  the  pa- 
tron roundly  for  all  the  service  given,  yet  tip- 
ping chauffeurs  is  as  common  in  the  larger  cities 
as  tipping  barbers  or  waiters.  It  simply  shows 
the  spread  of  the  practice  to  workers  who  have 
no  other  claim  upon  it  than  their  own  avaricious 
impulses  —  and  the  extreme  docility  of  the  pub- 
lic. Every  tip  given  to  a  chauffeur  is  so  clearly 
a  bad  economic  transaction  that  further  argu- 
ment is  unnecessary.  V 


34  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

So  widespread  has  the  practice  become  that 
tipping  is,  individually,  a  problem,  as  well  as 
collectively.  The  traveler  has  a  formidable  cost 
to  face  in  the  tipping  required.  When  the  total 
passes  $200,000,000  a  year,  it  becomes  a  prob- 
lem which  the  American  people  will  find  more 
difficult  of  solution  the  longer  it  continues  un- 
checked. 

The  whole  argument  is  summed  up  in  this. 
Tipping  is  an  economic  waste  because  it  is  - 
fs/double  pay  for  one  service  —  or  pay  for  no 
service.  It  causes  one  person  to  give  wealth  to 
another  without  a  fair  return  in  values,  or  with- 
out any  return.  The  pay  that  employers  give 
to  their  employees  should  be  the  only  compensa- 
tion they  receive.  All  the  money  given  by  the 
public  on  the  side  is  unearned  increment. 

The  best  condition  for  a  fair  exchange  of 
wealth  is  where  standards  are  known  and  prices 
are  definite.  Self-respect  and  sound  economics 
flourish  in  such  an  atmosphere,  whereas,  if  values 
are  hazy  and  compensation  is  indirect  and 
irregular,  as  it  is  under  the  custom  of  tipping, 
the  bickering  that  follows  degrades  manhood. 

From  an  economic  viewpoint,  all  businesses 
are  on  an  abnormal  basis  which  figure  minimum 


THE  ECONOMICS  OF  TIPPING        35 

wages,  or  no  wages,  to  their  employees  on  the  as- 
sumption that  the  public  will,  through  gratui- 
ties, pay  for  this  item  of  service. 

"  One  service  —  one  compensation  "  is  the 
only  right  relation  of  seller  and  buyer,  of  pa- 
tron and  proprietor. 


VI 

THE  ETHICS  OF  TIPPING 

THE  moral  wrong  of  tipping  is  in  the  graft- 
ing spirit  it  engenders  in  those  who  profit  by  it ; 
in  the  rigid  class  distinctions  it  creates  in  a  re- 
public ;  in  the  loss  of  that  fineness  of  self-respect 
without  which  men  and  women  are  only  so  much 
clay  —  worthless  dregs  in  the  crucible  of  democ- 
racy. 

In  a  monarchy  it  may  be  sufficient  for  self- 
respect  to  be  limited  to  the  governing  classes; 
but  the  theory  of  Americanism  requires  that 
every  citizen  shall  possess  this  quality.  We 
grant  the  suffrage  simply  upon  manhood  — 
upon  the  assumption  that  all  men  are  equal  in 
that  fundamental  respect. 

THE    PRICE    OF    PRIDE 

Hence,  whatever  undermines  self-respect, 
manhood,  undermines  the  republic.  Whatever 

cultivates  aristocratic  ideals  and  conventions  in 
36 


THE  ETHICS  OF  TIPPING          87 

a  republic  strikes  at  the  heart  of  democracy. 
(Where  all  men  are  equal,  some  cannot  become 
superior  unless  the  others  grovel  in  the  dust. 
Tipping  comes  into  a  democracy  to  produce  that 
relation./ 

\Tipping  is  the  price  of  pride.  It  is  what 
one  American  is  willing  to  pay  to  induce  another 
American  to  acknowledge  inferiority ,/  It 
represents  the  root  of  aristocracy  budding 
anew  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  publicly  re- 
nounced the  system  and  all  its  works. 

The  same  Americans  who  profit  by  this  un- 
democratic practice  exert  as  much  influence, 
proportionably,  in  the  government  of  the  repub- 
lic, as  those  who  give  tips,  or  those  whose  sense 
of  rectitude  will  not  allow  them  to  give  or  ac- 
cept gratuities.  Is  a  man  who  will  take  a  tip 
as  good  a  citizen,  is  his  self-respect  as  fine,  as 
the  one  who  will  not  accept  a  tip,  or  who  will 
not  give  a  tip?  Is  the  one  as  well  qualified  to 
vote  as  the  other? 

What  is  a  gentleman?     What  is  a  lady? 

Can  a  waiter  be  a  gentleman  ?  Can  a  maid  be 
a  lady? 

Would  a  gentleman  or  a  lady  accept  a  gra- 
tuity? 


38  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

v xWhat  would  happen  if  a  tip  should  be  offered 
to  the  average  "  gentleman  "  who  patronizes  res- 
taurants, and  taxicabs  and  barber  shops?  He 
would  have  a  brainstorm  of  self-righteous 
wrath !  / 

THE    TEST    OF    DEMOCBACY 

And  there  is  the  test.  If  a  "  gentleman " 
would  not  accept  a  tip,  is  it  gentlemanly  to  give 
a  tip  ?  If  a  "  gentleman's  "  self-respect  would 
rebel  at  the  idea  of  accepting  a  gratuity,  why 
^yshould  not  a  waiter's  self-respect  rebel  at  the 
idea? 

"  Oh,  but  there's  a  difference ! " 

The  difference  is  there  indeed.  It  is  the  dif- 
ference between  aristocracy  and  democracy.  In 
an  aristocracy  a  waiter  may  accept  a  tip  and 
be  servile  without  violating  the  ideals  of  the  sys- 
j  tern.  In  the  American  democracy  to  be  servile 
r  is  incompatible  with  citizenship. 

Every  tip  given  in  the  United  States  is  a  blow 
at  our  experiment  in  democracy.  The  custom 
announces  to  the  world  that  at  heart  we  are 
aristocratic,  that  we  do  not  believe  practically 
that  "  all  men  are  created  equal  " ;  that  the  class 
distinctions  forbidden  by  our  organic  law  are 


THE  ETHICS  OF  TIPPING          39 

instituted  through  social  conventions  and  flour- 
ish in  spite  of  our  lofty  professions. 

Unless  a  waiter  can  be  a  gentleman,  democ- 
racy is  a  failure.  If  any  form  of  service  is 
menial,  democracy  is  a  failure.  Those  Ameri- 
cans who  dislike  self-respect  in  servants  are  un- 
desirable citizens ;  they  belong  in  an  aristocracy. 

TIPS    DISLIKED    BY    RECIPIENTS 

Fortunately,  conditions  are  not  as  rotten  as 
the  extent  of  the  tipping  practice  would  indi- 
cate. The  vast  majority  of  Americans  who  give 
tips  do  so  under  duress.  At  heart  they  loathe 
the  custom.  They  feel  that  it  is  tribute  exacted 
as  arbitrarily  and  unrighteously  as  the  tribute 
paid  to  the  Barbary  pirates.  Some  day  this 
majority  will  rise  up  and  deal  as  summarily  with 
the  tipping  practice  as  our  forefathers  dealt 
with  the  Mediterranean  tribute  custom ! 

A  great  number  of  servants  and  workers  in 
such  lines  as  barber  shops,  restaurants  and 
other  public  service  positions  are  equally  op- 
posed to  the  custom.  They  are  caught  up, 
however,  in  a  system  where  they  must  conform 
to  the  custom  or  lose  their  employment.  Many 
a  barber  or  waiter  or  chauffeur  whose  self-re- 


40  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

spect  rebels  at  taking  a  tip  is  forced  to  do  so 
in  order  not  to  offend  patrons.  For  nothing  so 
stirs  up  a  "  gentleman  "  as  for  the  person  serv- 
ing to  decline  a  tip.  The  reason  is  that  he  feels 
the  rebuke  implied  in  the  refusal  and  knows  in 
his  conscience  that  the  practice  is  wrong. '.  We 
always  grow  more  indignant  at  a  just  accusa- 
tion than  at  an  unjust  one! 

CONSCIENCE    IS    STIRRING 

The  constant  re-appearance  of  laws  to  regu- 
late tipping,  in  every  section  of  the  country, 
proves  that  the  conscience  of  the  people  is  stir- 
ring. The  daily  and  periodical  press  now  and 
then  condemn  the  practice  editorially  in  unmeas- 
ured terms  and  persons  prominent  in  the  public 
eye  occasionally  flare-up  at  some  particularly 
flagrant  manifestation  of  the  itching  palm. 
Governor  Whitman,  of  New  York,  in  an  address 
to  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Useless 
Giving,  said  (as  District  Attorney  then): 

"  It  is  a  brave  thing,  a  womanly  thing  and  a 
courageous  thing  for  you  to  band  together  to 
combat  an  evil.  And  I  hope  you  will  stand 
pat.  We  are  all  growing  to  tolerate  a  kind  of 
petty  grafting  that  is  not  right,  that  is  un- 
American.  I  object  to  having  a  man  take  my 


THE  ETHICS  OF  TIPPING          41 

hat  and  hang  it  up  for  me  and  then  accept  a 
coin.  I  am  strong  and  big  enough  to  hang  up 
my  own  hat.  And  I  also  prefer  to  carry  my 
own  bag  to  having  a  boy  half  my  size  carry  a 
bag  that  is  half  his  size  and  be  paid  with  a 
coin.  If  he  honestly  earns  the  money  he  should 
have  it  as  an  earning,  not  as  a  gratuity.  It  is 
this  giving  of  gratuities  that  is  unlike  us,  it 
is  a  custom  copied  from  a  foreign  country 
where  conditions  are  different  from  ours." 

Where  one  person  has  the  courage  to  speak 
out  against  this  deep-rooted  social  convention, 
unnumbered  thousands  feel  dumbly  the  same  op- 
position to  it.  Harry  Lauder,  the  Scotch  come- 
dian, a  citizen  of  a  monarchy,  on  one  of  his  tours 
in  America,  was  reported  by  the  newspapers 
as  being  disgusted  with  the  development  of  so 
aristocratic  a  custom  as  tipping  in  America,  the 
cradle  of  democracy.  The  press  will  yield  many 
such  evidences  of  condemnation  for  the  prac- 
tice in  high  places.  They  are  cited  to  prove 
that  opposition  to  tipping  is  not  a  mere  dis- 
taste among  persons  of  limited  means  who  can- 
not afford  to  tip  generously. 

The  cost  of  following  the  custom  is  an  impor- 
tant item;  but  those  who  consider  it  morally 
wrong  gladly  would  pay  any  increase  in  charges 


42  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

that  might  follow  the  abolition  of  the  custom. 
If  the  Pullman  company  should  agree  to  abolish 
tipping  if  each  patron  would  pay  a  quarter 
more  for  his  berth  it  would  be  a  long  step  in 
advance  —  though  the  custom  should  be  abol- 
ished without  additional  charges  to  the  public. 

HUSH    MONEY 

The  United  States  went  through  a  period  of 
muck-raking  against  graft  among  politicians 
and  big  business  men.  It  was  found  that  the 
idea  of  "  honest  graft "  was  shockingly  preva- 
lent. The  especially  odious  manifestations 
were  dealt  with,  but  the  little  springs  and  rivu- 
lets that  combine  to  make  the  main  stream  were 

-,•      allowed  to  trickle  along,  unite,  and  become  a 
)    torrent !     Tipping  is   the   training   school   of 

v       graft. 

Will  a  messenger  boy  who  thinks  that  the  pub- 
lic owes  him  gratuities  develop  into  a  man  with 
sound  morals?  Will  the  bell-boy  who  works 
for  tips  grow  up  to  be  a  policeman  who  accepts 
hush-money  from  the  corner  saloon-keeper? 
What  is  the  difference  between  a  tip  to  a  bell-  ; 
boy  for  doing  what  the  hotel  pays  him  to  do 
and  the  hush-money  to  a  policeman  for  over- 


THE  ETHICS  OF  TIPPING          43 

looking    the    offence    he    is    paid    to    detect? 

The  tipping  practice  has  created  an  atmos- 
phere of  petty  graft,  the  constant  breathing  of 
which  breeds  all  other  forms  of  dishonesty.  It 
is  small  wonder  that  with  so  much  avarice  in  low 
places  that  we  have  been  shocked  by  graft  in 
high  places.  The  tipping  custom  is  educating 
the  grafting  spirit  much  faster  than  the  prose- 
cuting arm  of  the  government  can  destroy  it. 

There  is  a  direct  connection  between  corrup- 
tion in  elections  and  the  custom  of  tipping. 
The  man  who  lives  upon  tips  will  not  see  the  dis- 
honesty of  selling  his  vote,  so  readily  as  if  he 
discerned  the  immorality  of  gratuities.  Of 
course,  not  all  tip-takers  sell  their  votes ;  but 
the  moral  laxity  in  one  direction  predisposes  to- 
ward laxity  in  other  directions. 

SPLITTING    COMMISSIONS 

When  a  gratuity  gets  above  a  small  amount, 
it  is  known  as  splitting  commissions,  or  plain 
graft.  Salesmen  in  their  anxiety  to  sell  goods 
will  divide  their  commissions  with  the  buyers. 
Frequently  buyers  or  purchasing  agents  will  de- 
mand this  concession  when  it  has  not  been  of- 
fered. One  New  York  department  store  found 


44  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

that  its  piano  buyer  was  accepting  money  for 
placing  all  orders  with  a  particular  manufac- 
turer. This  store  discharged  its  buyer,  and  yet 
the  proprietor  of  the  store  doubtless  tipped  the 
waiter  at  lunch  the  same  day  he  so  acted !  He 
failed  to  see  that  a  waiter  (paid  to  serve  pa- 
trons) who  accepts  tips,  is  precisely  on  the  same 
level  as  a  buyer  (paid  to  purchase  in  the  whole 
market),  who  concentrates  his  orders  with  one 
house  for  a  fee. 

A  clipping  from  The  New  York  Times  shows 
the  attitude  that  employers  are  taking  toward 
split  commissions : 

"  Several  wholesalers  in  this  market  received 
a  letter  yesterday  from  a  prominent  dry  goods 
retailer  in  the  middle  West  saying  that  their 
buyers  would  be  in  this  city  to-day  and  that 
each  one  had  signified  her  acceptance  of  a  rule 
against  taking  petty  *  graft.'  The  retailer 
asked  that  the  salesmen  try  not  to  make  this 
rule  difficult  to  observe.  The  rule  follows: 
6  You  must  not  accept  entertainment  of  any  kind, 
even  luncheon  or  dinner,  from  any  one  in  New 
York.  We  will  make  an  allowance,  sufficient  to 
cover  all  expenses,  including  entertainment.' ' 

This  retail  merchant  had  discovered  that  a 
free  theater  ticket  or  dinner  could  create  such 


THE  ETHICS  OF  TIPPING          45 

a  sense  of  obligation  that  his  buyers  would  not 
be  able  to  exercise  the  freedom  of  choice  that 
was  necessary.  The  New  York  salesmen  of- 
fered the  tickets  and  dinners  in  the  form  of  gra- 
cious hospitality,  but  knew  all  the  while  that 
their  real  intent  was  to  bind  the  buyers  to  them 
through  a  sense  of  obligation  without  regard  to 
the  merits  of  the  goods. 

Thus  the  spirit  of  "  honest  graft  "  is  spread- 
ing out  in  America.  It  grows  with  what  it 
feeds  upon.  It  is  a  moral  miasma,  the  fumes  of 
which  are  permeating  all  strata  of  society. 

THE    BIBLE    AGAINST    TIPS 

Following  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  cita- 
tions in  the  Bible  against  tipping,  gifts,  gratui- 
ties, greed  and  like  practices  and  impulses : 

Exodus  23 :8.  And  thou  shalt  take  no  gift ; 
for  the  gift  blindeth  the  wise,  and  perverteth 
the  words  of  the  righteous. 

Ecclesiastes  7:7.  Surely  oppression  makethi 
a  wise  man  mad;  and  a  gift  destroyeth  the 
heart. 

Proverbs  15:27.  He  that  is  greedy  of  gain 
troubleth  his  own  house;  but  he  that  hateth 
gifts  shall  live. 

I    Samuel    12:3.     Behold   here    I    am:    wit- 


46  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

ness  against  me  before  the  Lord,  and  before 
his  anointed:  whose  ox  have  I  taken?  or  whose 
ass  have  I  taken?  or  whom  have  I  defrauded? 
whom  have  I  oppressed?  or  of  whose  hand  have 
I  received  any  bribe  to  blind  mine  eyes  there- 
with? and  I  will  restore  it  you. 

Isaiah  33:14-15.  Who  among  us  shall 
dwell  with  the  devouring  fire?  .  .  .  He  that 
walketh  righteously  and  speaketh  uprightly 
.  .  .  that  shaketh  his  hands  from  holding 
bribes.  .  .  .  He  shall  dwell  on  high.  .  .  . 

Job  15:34.  For  the  congregation  of  hypo- 
crites shall  be  desolate,  and  fire  shall  consume 
the  tabernacles  of  bribery. 

Luke  12:15.  And  he  said  unto  them,  Take 
heed  and  beware  of  covetousness :  for  a  man's 
life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  he  possesseth. 


VII 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TIPPING 

WHY  the  custom  of  tipping  should  be  followed 
so  generally  when  it  is  palpably  a  bad  economic 
practice  and  ethically  indefensible  is  a  psycho- 
logical study  with  the  same  aspects  that  the 
slavery  issue  presented  before  the  Civil  War. 

The  Puritan  conscience  allowed  that  institu- 
tion to  grow  to  formidable  proportions  before 
arousing  itself  decisively,  and  it  has  allowed 
this  equally  undemocratic  custom  to  attain  na- 
tional ramifications. 

CASTE   AND    CLASS 

In  its  broadest  statement,  the  psychology  of 
tipping  presents  the  two  antipodal  qualities  of 
and  pusillanimity.  The  caste  system  is 
not  based  upon  the  superiority  of  one  class  over 
another,  but  upon  the  pride  that  one  stage  of 
human  development  feels  over  another  stage  of 
human  development. 

47 


48  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

A  democracy  cannot  do  away  with  different 
stages  of  development  in  the  human  mind.  But 
it  does  do  away  with  the  belief  of  one  stage  of 
development  that  it  is  worthy  of  homage  from 
another  stage  of  development.  Democracy  does 
not  concede  that  one  man  working  with  his  brain 
is  superior  to  another  man  working  with  his 
brawn.  Democracy  looks  beyond  the  accident 
of  occupation,  or  the  stage  of  human  develop- 
ment, and  sees  every  man  as  originating  in  the 
same  divine  source.  "  We  hold  these  truths  to 
be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are  created  equal." 

In  a  monarchy,  the  craving  of  the  human 
mind  for  approbation  —  the  quality  of  pride  — 
is  cultivated  into  the  class  or  caste  system. 
Those  citizens  who  have  attained  a  larger  meas- 
ure of  culture  than  their  fellow-men  allow  the 
false  sense  of  pride  in  that  culture  to  creep  into 
their  ideals  and  actions.  They  seek  for  some 
method  of  visualizing  this  assumed  superiority, 
of  obtaining  the  acknowledgment  of  it  from  their 
fellow-men.  With  an  unerring  instinct  of  hu- 
man nature  they  play  upon  the  cupidity  of  those 
J  whom  they  desire  to  place  in  a  servile  relation. 
A  gift  of  money  wins  the  social  distinction  they 
covet. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TIPPING      49 

Thus  the  tipping  custom  has_jts_  ojjgin  in 
pride,  and  it  necessarily  involves  humility  as  a 
correlative  condition.  If  all  men  are  created 
equal,  as  we  aver  in  our  basic  political  creed, 
they  cannot  become  unequal  except  artificially, 
except  by  an  agreement  of  one  set  of  citizens  to 
play  the  role  of  servitors  for  a  consideration 
from  another  set  of  citizens.  One  set  of  citi- 
zens will  become  abased  —  that  is,  they  will 
surrender  their  birthright  of  equality  —  in  or- 
der that  another  set  may  strut  around  in  a 
belief  of  superiority  and  indulge  a  sense  of 
pride. 

NO    SUPERIOR    CLASS 

In  a  democracy,  the  gradations  of  culture  ex- 
ist, but  it  is  not  permissible  for  one  class  of 
workers  to  assume  a  superiority  over  another 
class.  That  they  do  assume  it  is  evident,  and 
that  for  all  practical  social  purposes  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being  on  that  assumption 
is  evident,  but  in  granting  manhood  suffrage,  in 
allowing  the  proud  and  the  humble  to  have  an 
equal  voice  in  government,  we  declare  the  social 
system  a  fungus  growth. 

At  the  moment  of  the  highest  power  of  the 


50  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

institution  of  slavery  it  was  not  less  wrong  than 
at  the  moment  the  first  ship-load  of  slaves  was 
landed.  No  mere  accumulation  of  material 
property  can  vitiate  a  principle  of  right. 
Hence,  the  very  widespread  acceptance  of  the 
tipping  custom  lends  no  authority  to  it.  If  95,- 
000,000  Americans  are  engaged  in  tipping  5,- 
000,000  Americans,  and  if  both  the  givers  and 
the  receivers  apparently  concur  in  the  rightness 
of  the  custom,  it  does  not  thereby  become  right. 
We  must  go  back  to  first  principles  to  find  the 
answer. 

TIPPING    AND    SLAVERY 

The  American  democracy  could  not  live  in 
the  face  of  a  lie  such  as  slavery  presented,  and 
it  cannot  live  in  the  face  of  a  lie  such  as  tipping 
presents.  The  aim  of  American  statesmanship 
should  be  to  keep  fresh  and  strong  the  original 
concepts  of  democracy  and  to  beat  back  the  ef- 
forts of  base  human  qualities  to  override  these 
concepts. 

The  relation  of  a  man  giving  a  tip  and  a  man 
accepting  it  is  as  undemocratic  as  the  relation 
of  master  and  slave.  A  citizen  in  a  republic 
ought  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  every 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TIPPING      51 

other  citizen,  with  no  thought  of  cringing,  with- 
out an  assumption  of  superiority  or  an  acknowl- 
edgment of  inferiority.  This  is  elementary 
preaching  and  yet  the  distance  we  have  strayed 
from  primary  principles  makes  it  necessary 
to  prove  the  case  against  tipping. 

The  psychology  of  tipping  may  be  stated 
more  in  detail  in  the  following  formula : 

To  one-quarter  part  of  generosity  add  two 
parts  of  pride  and  one  part  of  fear. 

FIRST    INGREDIENT,    GENEROSITY    ~ 

This  is  a  subtle  element  and  merges  into  a 
sense  of  obligation  on  slight  provocation.  You 
feel  that  your  position  in  life  is  more  fortunate, 
and  pity  enters  your  thought.  If  an  extra  serv- 
ice is  given,  in  reality  or  in  appearance,  the 
servitor  has  pitched  his  appeal  upon  the  ground 
of  obligation.  Few  persons  can  rest  easily  un- 
til a  sense  of  obligation  is  discharged  through 
some  form  of  compensation.  .  The  opportunity 
to  balance  the  account  comes  when  cash  is  being 
passed  between  you  and  the  person  serving. 
You  offer  a  cash  consideration  proportioned  to 
your  sense  of  obligation. 

Inasmuch  as  the  whole  argument  in  favor  of 


52  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

tipping  is  based  upon  the  allegation  that  the 
servitor  actually  gives  a  value  in  extra  service, 
the  element  of  obligation  will  be  examined 
closely. 

The  Pullman  porter  or  the  waiter  who  can 
succeed  in  making  a  patron  feel  a  sense  of  ob- 
ligation knows  that  he  has  assured  a  tip  for  him- 
self. The  company  or  the  restaurant  business 
is  a  vague  fact,  while  the  man  hovering  over 
your  berth  or  table  is  a  most  tangible  relation. 
His  art  is  to  make  the  patron  feel  that  he  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  careful  attentions.  In  a  sub- 
conscious way  the  patron  knows  that  the  price 
of  the  ticket  or  the  food  includes  the  service 
(wages  of  the  porter  or  waiter)  but  the  obse- 
quious alertness  of  the  attendant  overshadows 
this  knowledge.  It  is  present  personality  versus 
an  abstract  entity  known  as  company  or  res- 
taurant. Hence,  though  the  price  of  the  ticket 
or  the  payment  of  the  check  pays  for  the  por- 
ter's or  waiter's  service,  the  patron  has  been 
made  to  feel  a  second  obligation  which  he  dis- 
charges with  a  tip. 

CLOAKROOM    TACTICS 

Thus  tipping  involves  two  payments  for  one 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TIPPING      53 

service.  Servitors  understand  clearly  the  psy- 
chology of  the  sense  of  obligation  from  experi- 
ment even  though  they  could  not  read  under- 
standingly  a  book  on  psychology.  A  trial  in 
Detroit  over  the  division  of  the  tips  in  the  cloak- 
room of  a  restaurant  furnished  the  following 

proof : 

— 1 

"  *  How  do  you  make  people  "  cough  up  "?  ' 
queried  the  judge. 

" '  When  they  are  going  away  I  brush  them 
down,  and  if  they  don't  give  me  something  I 
take  hold  of  their  lapel  and  say,  "  Excuse  me," 
and  brush  them  again.  I  pretend  that's  the 
only  English  I  can  speak.  If  they  don't  give 
me  something  then  I  hold  on  to  their  hats  until 
they  do  give  me  something.  I  made  $12  the 
first  day  I  worked  at  the  place.' 

"  6  Why  did  you  pretend  you  could  not  speak 
English?5  demanded  the  judge. 

" '  The  more  English  you  know  the  less  tips 
you  get.' " 

This  morally  obtuse  hat-boy  knew  that  the 
average  person  does  not  want  something  for 
nothing  when  dealing  with  serving  persons,  and 
he  exploited  this  trait  to  the  maximum.  Pull- 
man porters  and  high  grade  waiters  are  more 
polished  in  the  use  of  the  same  method,  but  it 


54  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

all  gets  back  to  the  idea  of  creating  a  sense  of 
obligation  by  actual  or  pretended  service  beyond 
the  expected. 

Undoubtedly,  a  rigid  adherence  to  the  letter 
of  duty  would  result  in  service  that  would  be 
unsatisfactory,  but  this  is  to  be  surmounted 
rightly  by  the  employer  requiring  flexibility  of 
service  from  employees  —  not  by  the  public  pay- 
ing extra  for  affability,  courtesy  and  attentive- 
ness. 

SECOND    INGREDIENT,    PRIDE  V 

Anxiety  to  cut  a  good  figure  before  servants 
or  allied  classes  of  personal  workers  is  a  rich 
vein  of  pride  which  they  do  not  fail  to  work  for 
all  it  is  worth.  This  kind  of  mind  is  always 
agitated  from  fear  that  the  tipping  has  not 
been  done  handsomely  enough.  The  satisfac- 
tion of  having  a  fellow  creature  servile  before 
your  largess  is  a  factor.  The  gratuity  empha- 
sizes your  position  in  the  social  scale.  It 
stamps  the  giver  as  a  gentleman  or  lady.  The 
smirking  attentiveness  of  the  servitor  is  balm  to 
vanity. 

Truly,  if  it  were  not  for  vanity  there  would 
be  no  tipping  system. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TIPPING      55 

THIRD    INGREDIENT,    FEAR 

The  power  behind  the  tipping  custom  is  So- 
cial Convention  and  the  fear  of  violating  it. 
The  so-called  social  leaders,  actuated  by  aristo- 
cratic ideals,  establish  the  custom  and  the  crowd 
follow  suit  in  a  desire  to  do  the  "  proper " 
thing.  The  "  what  will  people  say "  mania 
holds  the  average  person  in  an  iron  obedience  to 
a  custom  which  is  innately  loathed.  It  makes 
you  conspicuous  to  be  a  dissenter.  The  serving 
persons  understand  this  psychology  perfectly. 
To  drift  along  with  the  current  of  social  usage 
is  easiest,  whereas,  to  go  against  it  requires  the 
highest  order  of  courage.  The  multitude 
simply  rate  it  as  one  of  the  petty  vices  and  let 
it  go  at  that. 

THE    REMEDY 

Now  what  is  the  method  of  meeting  and  mas- 
tering this  situation? 

Precisely  the  same  reasoning  employed  by  the 
Americans  in  1801  against  the  custom  of  pay- 
ing tribute  to  the  Barbary  pirates. 

First,  establish  clearly  in  your  mind  that 
tipping  is  wrong.  The  slogan  is :  ONE  COM- 
PENSATION FOR  ONE  SERVICE.  With 


56  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

this  premise,  you  can  answer,  seriatim,  every 
argument  which  arises  in  favor  of  the  custom. 
To  the  plea  of  generosity  or  obligation  the  re- 
ply is,  full  compensation  for  all  service  rendered 
is  included  in  the  bill  you  pay  at  the  hotel  desk, 
at  the  ticket  window,  to  the  barber-shop  cashier, 
for  the  taxi-meter  reading,  and  so  on.  Any 
extra  compensation  implied  by  the  person  serv- 
ing is  an  imposition  and  has  no  justification 
either  as  charity  or  obligation. 

Second,  the  promptings  of  pride  must  be 
recognized  frankly  and  mastered  by  democratic 
ideals.  When  a  tip  is  given,  not  only  is  an  indi- 
vidual wrong  done,  but  a  blow  is  struck  at  re- 
publican government  and  the  ideals  upon  which 
it  is  founded.  Patriotism,  as  well  as  faithful- 
ness to  self-respect  requires  that  all  customs 
which  promote  class  distinctions  shall  be  held  in 
check.  In  entertaining  a  democratic  attitude 
toward  all  Americans  you  are  strengthening  the 
government  under  which  you  live.  You  will  not 
become  less  of  a  gentleman  or  lady  if  the  so- 
cially submerged  classes  rise  to  a  normal  plane 
of  self-respect.  In  declining  to  place  a  false 
valuation  upon  them  you  are  promoting  the 
true  mission  of  Americanism. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TIPPING      57 

"  To  thine  own  self  be  true. 
And  it  must  follow  as  the  night  the  day 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man." 

Third,  the  fear  of  violating  a  social  custom 
is  overcome  when  you  understand  its  pernicious 
nature.  The  general  observance  of  it  gives  the 
custom  neither  rightness  nor  authority.  With 
full  assurance  that  the  custom  is  wrong  and 
with  a  measure  of  the  courage  Decatur  showed 
before  Tripoli,  an  apparently  formidable,  but 
really  vulnerable,  custom  can  be  destroyed. 


VIII 

THE  LITERATURE  OF  TIPPING 

WRITERS  of  books  on  etiquette  uniformly  ac- 
cept tipping  as  the  correct  social  usage.  They 
state  just  the  amount  that  it  is  proper  to  give 
on  various  occasions  and  thus  do  their  utmost 
to  rivet  the  custom  upon  the  people. 

A  few  extracts  from  such  books  will  be  given 
here  to  show  how  the  custom  is  strengthened 
by  the  arbiters  of  etiquette.  Those  masses  of 
Americans  who  are  aspiring  to  a  broader  culture 
naturally  turn  to  these  books,  and  have  their 
Americanism  poisoned  at  the  very  start.  They 
are  educated  to  believe  that  tipping  is  essential 
to  social  grace.  The  feature  departments  of 
newspapers  in  answering  queries  about  tipping 
usually  confirm  this  impression,  though  now  and 
then  a  side-swipe  is  delivered  at  the  extortionate 

attitude  of  the  serving  persons. 
58 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  TIPPING      69 


HOTEL    FEES 

Taking  up  the  hotel  first,  the  following  ad- 
vice is  from  "  Everyday  Etiquette  " : 

"A  porter  carries  a  bag  and  he  must  be 
tipped;  another  carries  up  a  trunk,  he  must  be 
tipped;  one  rings  for  ice  water  and  the  boy 
bringing  it  expects  his  ten  cents ;  one  wants  hot 
water  every  morning  and  in  notifying,  the  cham- 
bermaid of  this  fact,  must  slip  a  bit  of  silver 
into  her  palm.  The  waiter  at  one's  table  must 
be  frequently  remembered,  and  the  head  waiter 
will  give  one  better  attention  if  he  finds  some- 
thing in  his  hand  after  he  shows  the  new  arrival 
to  a  table,  and,  of  course,  on  leaving  one  will 
give  a  fee. 

"  It  is  usually  best  for  a  transient  guest  to 
fee  the  waiter  at  each  meal,  since  another  man 
will  probably  be  in  attendance  at  the  next  one. 
The  usual  rate  is  to  give  10  per  cent,  of  the  sum 
paid  for  the  lunch  or  dinner  —  ten  cents  being 
the  minimum  except  at  a  restaurant  of  humble 
pretensions,  where  five  will  be  gladly  accepted 
by  the  waitress." 

If  the  waiters  and  other  hotel  employees  had 
written  the  foregoing  themselves  could  they  have 
put  it  more  strongly?  Note  the  advice  to  tip 
the  waiter  at  each  meal  because  a  new  one  may 


60  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

be  on  hand  at  the  next  meal !  This  implies  that 
the  failure  to  tip  is  a  grave  offense,  and  that  no 
risk  of  giving  it  must  be  taken.  The  patron 
may  rest  assured  that  a  new  one  will  be  on  hand 
at  the  next  meal,  for  the  head  waiter  shifts 
them  about  for  exactly  that  reason  —  to  make 
the  patron  tip  again. 

However,  in  this  same  book,  there  is  a  reluc- 
tant note,  as  shown  by  the  following  extract : 

"  We  may  rebel  against  the  custom  and  with 
reason.  But  as  not  one  of  us  can  alter  the  state 
of  affairs,  it  is  well  to  accept  it  with  good  grace, 
or  reconcile  oneself  to  indifferent  service." 

Hotel  managers  will  read  this  with  entire  ap- 
proval. And  yet,  consider  what  a  contradiction 
it  is  for  a  hotel  to  advertise  its  service  at  such 
and  such  rates  and  then  subject  its  guests  to 
"  indifferent  service  "  if  they  do  not  cross  an 
itching  palm  at  every  angle  in  the  building! 

TIP OR    BE    INSULTED 

Any  one  who  conscientiously  objects  to  tip- 
ping knows  how  true  it  is  that  in  the  "  best " 
places,  with  one  or  two  notable  exceptions,  not 
pnly  "  indifferent  service "  but  positively  in- 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  TIPPING      61 

suiting  deportment  may  be  expected  from  the 
servitors  if  the  tips  are  omitted. 

The  servitors  are  aggressive  because  their 
remuneration  depends  upon  what  they  can  work 
out  of  the  patrons.  The  employer  had  hired 
them  on  the  understanding  that  any  compensa- 
tion they  receive  must  come  from  the  gratuities 
of  patrons.  In  certain  hotels  the  management 
carries  the  exploitation  to  the  point  of  charg- 
ing the  servitors  for  the  privilege  of  working 
the  patrons.  The  tipping  privilege  in  one 
hotel  has  been  sold  as  high  as  $10,000  a  year ! 

The  economic  pressure  of  tipping  upon  the 
patron  causes  one  authority  on  etiquette, "  Good 
Form  For  All  Occasions,"  to  exclaim : 

"  Women  of  frugal  mind  endeavor  to  call  on 
these  functionaries  as  little  as  they  can  because 
the  cents  readily  mount  into  dollars.  The  ele- 
vator-boy receives  fewer  tips  than  his  peripa- 
tetic brother  and  need  not  be  feed  after  a  short 
stay." 

Here  is  proof  that  those  who  from  economic 
or  ethical  reasons  do  not  wish  to  tip  are  perse- 
cuted. They  are  advised  that  the  easiest  way 
to  avoid  the  displeasure  of  servitors  is  to  call 
on  them  for  service  as  little  as  possible !  The 


62  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

two  dollars  or  more  they  pay  at  the  hotel  desk 
for  a  day's  domicile  must  be  exclusively  for  the 
privilege  of  sitting  in  a  chair  or  sleeping  in  a 
bed.  The  moment  they  require  the  service  of 
any  of  the  employees  about  the  building,  they 
are  under  a  second  obligation  to  pay.  And 
yet,  hotels  prate  about  their  "  hospitality." 
The  Barbary  pirates  were  hospitable  in  the 
same  way  —  after  you  paid  the  tribute ! 

HOW    THE    BOOKS    HELP 

"  The  Cyclopaedia  of  Social  Usage "  states 
the  tipping  obligation  as  follows : 

"  In  a  large  and  fashionable  hotel  generous 
and  widely  diffused  gratuities  are  expected 
by  the  employees.  The  experienced  traveler 
usually  distributes  in  gratuities  a  sum  equal  to 
ten  per  cent,  of  the  amount  of  the  bill.  It  is 
customary  when  a  lengthy  sojourn  is  made  in 
an  hotel  or  pension  to  tip  the  chambermaid,  the 
various  waiters  and  the  porter  who  does  one's 
boots,  once  in  every  week.  Once  in  every  fort- 
night the  head  waiter's  expectations  should  be 
satisfied,  and  where  an  elevator  boy  and  door- 
man are  on  duty,  they,  too,  have  claims  on  the 
purse  of  the  guest. 

"  In  a  fashionable  European  hotel  the  rule 
of  tipping  a  franc  a  week  all  around  may  safely 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  TIPPING      63 

be  observed  during  a  long  stop.  But  at  the 
hour  of  departure  something  extra  must  be 
added  to  the  weekly  franc,  and  the  head  waiter 
will  scarcely  smile  as  blandly  as  need  be  if  he 
is  not  propitiated  with  gold." 

Others,  the  writer  says,  have  claims  that  it 
is  well  to  recognize  and  meet  before  they  urge 
them. 

Practically  all  the  books  on  etiquette  have 
the  same  note  of  subserviency  to  the  custom. 
The  point  to  be  remembered  is  that,  without  be- 
ing conscious  of  it,  these  writers  are  in  league 
with  the  beneficiaries  of  the  custom  to  perpetuate 
and  extend  it.  Most  of  the  authors  think  the 
custom  is  right,  they  have  the  aristocratic  view- 
point that  servants  should  "  know  their  place  " 
and,  in  a  republic,  be  made  to  acknowledge  it 
by  accepting  a  gratuity.  Others  simply  take 
conditions  as  they  find  them  and  write  to  in- 
form readers  how  to  avoid  unpleasant  incidents. 
But  regardless  of  the  opinion  of  the  writers  on 
the  ethics  of  the  custom,  the  books  are  one  of  the 
principal  supports  of  the  custom. 

Leaving  the  hotel,  and  considering  the  tipping 
custom  in  its  relation  to  private  hospitality,  we 
find  this  advice  in  "  Dame  Curtesy's  Book  of 
Etiquette": 


64  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

"  It  is  customary  to  give  servants  a  tip  when 
one  remains  several  days  under  a  friend's  roof. 
The  sum  cannot  be  stated  but  common  sense  will 
settle  the  question." 

IN    PRIVATE    HOUSES 

The  theory  of  tipping  to  servants  in  private 
homes  where  one  may  be  a  guest  is  based  on  the 
assumption  that  one's  presence  gives  the  serv- 
ants extra  work  and  they  should  be  compensated 
therefor.  The  extra  work  undoubtedly  is  in- 
volved, but  in  a  really  true  conception  of  hospi- 
tality, should  not  the  servants  enter  into  it  as 
much  as  the  hosts?  Or,  if  the  guest  entails  ex- 
tra work  should  not  the  host's  conception  of 
hospitality  cause  him  or  her  to  supply  the  ex- 
tra compensation?  The  guest  who  tips  servants 
in  a  private  home  implies  that  the  host  or  hostess 
has  not  adequately  compensated  them  for  their 
labor. 

The  tips  under  such  circumstances  are  a  re- 
flection upon  the  hospitality  of  the  home.  A 
host  should  ascertain  if  servants  consider  them- 
selves outside  the  feeling  of  hospitality  and  pay 
them  for  the  extra  work,  thus  giving  the  guest 
complete  hospitality.  It  is  bad  enough  to  tip 
in  a  hotel,  for  professional  hospitality;  to  tip 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  TIPPING      65 

in  a  private  home  is,  or  should  be,  an  insult  to 
the  host. 

ON    OCEAN    VOYAGES 

The  same  author  advises  in  regard  to  the 
Pullman  car  that  "  a  porter  should  receive  a  tip 
at  the  end  of  the  journey,  large  or  small  accord- 
ing to  the  length  of  the  trip  and  the  service 
rendered,"  and  then  considers  the  custom  aboard 
a  ship,  as  follows: 

"  There  is  much  tipping  to  be  done  aboard  a 
ship.  Two  dollars  all  around  is  a  tariff  fixed 
for  persons  of  average  means,  and  this  is  in- 
creased to  individual  servants  from  whom  extra 
service  has  been  demanded." 

The  traveler  boards  a  ship  with  a  ticket  of 
passage  which  includes  stateroom  and  meals 
and  all  service  requisite  to  the  proper  enjoy- 
ment of  these  privileges.  The  stewards  and 
other  employees  on  board  are  expressly  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  the  service  the  ticket  prom- 
ised. Hence,  extra  compensation  to  them  may 
be  justified  only  as  charity.  They  cannot  pos- 
sibly render  extra  service  for  which  they  should 
be  paid.  If  a  passenger  called  upon  the 
engineer  to  render  a  service,  that  employee 


66  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

would  be  rendering  an  extra  service,  but  stew- 
ards and  stewardesses  and  like  employees  are 
aboard  to  render  any  service  the  passenger 
wants  or  needs.  Moving  deck  chairs,  bring- 
ing books,  attending  to  calls  to  your  stateroom, 
serving  you  food  and  the  like  duties  are  all 
within  the  scope  of  their  regular  employment. 
But  read  another  writer's  pronouncement: 

"  At  the  end  of  an  ocean  voyage  of  at  least 
five  days'  duration,  the  fixed  tariff  of  fees  ex- 
acts a  sum  of  two  dollars  and  a  half  per  pas- 
senger to  every  one  of  those  steamer  servants 
who  have  ministered  daily  to  the  traveler's  com- 
fort. 

"  Thus  single  women  would  give  this  sum  to 
the  stewardess,  the  table  steward,  the  stateroom 
steward,  and,  if  the  stewardess  has  not  prepared 
her  bath,  she  bestows  a  similar  gratuity  on  her 
bath  steward.  If  every  day  she  has  occupied 
her  deck  chair,  he  also  will  expect  two  dollars 
and  fifty  cents. 

"  Steamers  there  are  on  which  the  deck  boys 
must  be  remembered  with  a  dollar  each,  and 
where  a  collection  is  taken  up,  by  the  boy  who 
polishes  the  shoes  and  by  the  musicians. 

"  On  huge  liners  patronized  by  rich  folks  ex- 
clusively, the  tendency  is  to  fix  the  minimum 
gratuity  at  $5,  with  an  advance  to  seven,  ten 


THE  LITERATURE  OF  TIPPING      67 

and  twelve  where  the  stewardess,  table  steward 
and  stateroom  steward  are  concerned." 

Then  follow  instructions  to  tip  the  smoking- 
room  steward,  the  barbers  and  even  the  ship's 
doctor ! 

THE    "  RICH   AMERICAN  "    MYTH 

It  is  small  wonder,  in  view  of  the  nature  of  the 
literature  of  tipping,  that  Europe  has  found 
American  travelers  "  rich  picking."  Before 
embarking  on  the  first  trip  abroad  the  average 
American  informs  himself  and  herself  of  what 
is  expected  in  the  way  of  gratuities,  and  every- 
where the  tourist  turns  in  a  library  advice  is 
found  which  effectually  throws  the  cost  of  serv- 
ice upon  the  patron.  Railroad  and  steamship 
literature  usually  avoids  the  subject  because 
these  companies  do  not  want  to  bring  this  addi- 
tional expense  of  travel  to  the  attention  of  the 
public.  A  steamship  folder  will  state  that  pas- 
sage to  London  is  ninety  dollars,  including 
berth  and  meals,  but  gives  no  hint  that  the  tips 
will  amount  to  ten  dollars  more ! 


IX 

TIPPING  AND  THE  STAGE 

AN  almost  invariable  laugh-producer  on  the 
stage  or  in  moving  pictures  is  a  scene  in  which  a 
bell-boy  or  other  servitor  executes  the  cus- 
tomary maneuvers  for  obtaining  a  tip. 

Play  producers  know  that  the  laugh  can  be 
evoked  and  any  hotel  scene  is  certain  to  include 
this  bit  of  business.  In  seeking  the  explanation 
of  the  humor  in  such  a  scene,  the  answer  will  be 
found  to  be  cynicism  and  the  peculiar  glee  that 
people  feel  in  observing  others  in  disagreeable 
situations. 

COMIC  WOES 

The  slap-stick  variety  of  comedy  is  based 
upon  this  trait  in  human  nature.  If  a  man  is 
kicked  down  three  flights  of  stairs,  the  spectator 
howls  with  delight.  And,  particularly,  if  a 
policeman  is  worsted  in  an  encounter,  the  merri- 
ment is  frenzied.  Our  Sunday  comic  papers 
68 


TIPPING  AND  THE  STAGE         69 

depend  almost  exclusively  upon  violence  for 
their  humor.  It  is  the  final  spanking  the  Kat- 
zen jammer  Kids  receive  that  brings  the  laugh. 
The  climax  to  many  other  comics  —  notably 
Mutt  and  Jeff  —  is  violence. 

Hence,  a  tipping  scene  on  the  stage  or  in  mov- 
ing pictures  creates  a  laugh  because  the  public 
sees  the  tip-giver  as  a  victim.  He  usually  ex- 
aggerates his  role  by  making  the  giving  of  the 
tip  a  painful  act  to  himself,  and  the  whole  scene 
proves  the  contention  in  this  discussion,  namely, 
that  tipping  is  wrong.  If  the  spectators  did 
not  perceive  the  bell-boy  as  a  bandit,  and  the 
hotel  guest  as  a  victim,  no  laugh  would  result. 
They  have  been  in  similar  situations  and  know 
the  feelings  of  the  victim. 

Sometimes  stage  managers  vary  the  incident 
so  that  the  laugh  is  on  the  bell-boy,  by  having 
the  guest  refrain  from  tipping.  Then  the  spec- 
tators laugh  at  the  bell-boy's  disappointment  — 
again  finding  humor  in  misfortune. 

TIPS    IN    THE    MOVIES 

With  the  development  of  moving  pictures  the 
utilization  of  this  kind  of  humor  has  widened  im- 
measurably. And  the  point  to  be  considered 


70  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

here  is  the  influence  of  such  visualization  of  tip- 
ping upon  the  spread  of  the  custom.  Un- 
doubtedly tipping  is  increased  by  moving  pic- 
tures and  by  stage  representation.  The  public 
is  made  to  feel  that,  despite  the  inherent  wrong 
in  the  custom,  it  must  be  followed,  or  they  will 
experience  the  unpleasantness  at  which  they 
have  just  laughed. 

Another  example  of  the  itching  palm  which 
may  be  depended  upon  to  produce  a  laugh  is  a 
scene  in  which  a  policeman  is  handed  a  bill  for 
neglecting  his  duty  in  some  respect.  A  well-to- 
do  man  will  cross  the  law  in  some  manner  and  in 
the  play  he  winks  an  eye,  the  policeman  turns  his 
back  with  his  palm  extended,  a  bill  is  slipped 
into  it,  and  he  departs  to  the  sound  of  the 
spectators'  laugh. 

The  effect  of  these  scenes  upon  the  public  is 
dual.  It  either  confirms  their  impression  that 
all  servants  or  officers  are  "  approachable,"  or 
it  creates  among  the  unsophisticated  the  idea 
that  tipping  or  graft  is  the  customary  and 
proper  method  of  dealing  with  such  classes  of 
citizens.  The  worldly  wise  gain  the  first  im- 
pression, and  the  spread  of  the  tipping  custom 
is  assured  by  the  second  impression. 


TIPPING  AND  THE  STAGE         71 

Moving  pictures  have  extended  this  influence 
to  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  country.  The 
result  is  that  persons  who  live  in  the  smaller  and 
more  democratic  communities  are  educated  to 
the  big  city  development  of  the  itching  palm. 
And  the  effect  upon  children  and  young  people 
is  pernicious  in  the  extreme. 

IMPRESSING    THE    YOUNG 

A  boy  who  sees  a  tipping  scene  in  a  moving 
picture  gains  the  impression  that  it  is  smart  to 
exact  such  tribute.  Or  he  gains  the  impression 
that  he  has  been  overlooking  a  rich  vein  of 
easy  remuneration.  The  photo-play  directors, 
either  consciously  or  unconsciously,  are  doing 
great  damage  to  democratic  ideals  by  featuring 
such  scenes.  It  will  not  be  surprising  if,  among 
the  other  evils  fostered  by  moving  pictures,  the 
next  generation  displays  a  marked  increase  in 
the  grafting  propensity.  The  young  people 
are  being  educated  to  think  it  natural. 

Thus,  aside  from  the  human  impulses  of  pride 
and  avarice,  it  is  apparent  that  literature  and 
the  stage  are  strengthening  the  custom  of  tip- 
ping by  their  representations  of  it  as  humorous. 
People  will  not  combat  anything  at  which  they 


72  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

laugh.  The  itching  palm  has  two  doughty 
champions  in  the  books  on  etiquette  and  the 
theaters. 

Actors,  it  would  seem,  have  enough  contact 
with  the  itching  palm  among  stage  hands  to 
make  them  ardent  advocates  of  reform,  to  say 
nothing  of  their  contact  with  it  in  hotels.  On 
the  vaudeville  stage  especially  the  carpenter, 
the  electrician,  the  property  man  and  their  co- 
workers  must  be  "  seen  "  with  regular  and  gen- 
erous donations  to  insure  a  smooth  act.  In 
many  theaters  the  stage  hands  have  a  definite 
scale  of  tips  for  regular  duties  that  they  per- 
form —  and  for  which  the  management  also 
pays  them. 


THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT 

FROM  a  waiter,  or  a  porter,  or  a  janitor's 
point  of  view,  tipping  is  wrong  only  when  it  is 
meager.  They  regard  this  form  of  compensa- 
tion as  not  only  just  but  usually  too  sparingly 
bestowed. 

Unquestionably,  with  any  reform  in  the  man- 
ner of  compensation  to  persons  engaged  in  do- 
mestic or  other  serving  capacities,  must  go  a 
reform  in  the  attitude  of  the  public  toward 
servitors.  The  patron  who  abuses  his  privi- 
leges, who  exacts  of  employees  far  more  than  he 
has  the  right  to  ask,  who  treats  them  as  auto- 
matons without  sensibilities  or  self-respect  — 
such  a  patron  must  be  handled  simultaneously 
with  the  change  in  manner  of  compensation. 

Employers,  particularly  in  hotels  and  like 
public  places,  will  have  to  give  more  attention 
to  seeing  that  employees  are  not  mistreated  by 

the  swaggering,  blatant,  selfish  type  of  patron. 
73 


74  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

This  type  abounds  and  has  been  developed 
largely  by  the  tipping  custom,  that  is,  the  ex- 
tremely servile  attitude  asumed  by  servitors  in 
order  to  stimulate  tipping  has  brought  out  the 
opposite  quality  of  domineering  pride  in  the 
patron. 

THE    SORE    SPOT 

No  feeling  so  rankles  in  the  mind  as  the  sense 
of  uncompensated  labor.  The  thought  that 
patrons  have  gotten  something  for  nothing 
leaves  a  sore  spot  in  the  thought  of  servitors. 
And  if  they  are  employed  in  places  where  the 
only  compensation  they  receive  is  from  the 
gratuities  of  patrons,  this  soreness  is  incurable. 
The  next  time  the  patron  appears  he  will  be 
made  to  feel  the  displeasure  of  the  employee. 
Thus,  in  one  sense,  it  is  the  system  that  is 
wrong,  a  system  which  does  an  injustice  to  both 
employee  and  patron. 

Every  employee  has  a  fairly  clear  idea  of  his 
duties.  Most  employees  scrupulously  refrain 
from  doing  more  than  the  duties  for  which  they 
are  paid  expressly.  Hence,  when  an  employee 
over-steps  this  boundary  he  has  fixed  in  his  own 


THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT         75 

mind,  he  has  the  sense  of  uncompensatcd  labor. 
He  feels  a  grudge  either  against  the  employer  or 
the  patron.  He  looks  to  one  or  the  other  to 
supply  the  extra  remuneration  for  the  extra 
service. 

As  a  consequence,  personal  service  workers 
are  nursing  a  grievance  much  of  the  time. 
Their  conversation  and  thoughts  are  about  some 
patron  who  has  failed  to  compensate  them,  or 
has,  in  their  judgment,  inadequately  compen- 
sated them.  They  devote  little  time  to  thinking 
of  a  reform  in  the  system  that  would  give  them 
an  adequate  compensation  from  the  employer 
and  do  away  entirely  with  the  patron-to-em- 
ployee form  of  compensation. 

THE    MARTYR 

The  tipping  system  is  so  established  now  that 
the  individual  who  opposes  it  must  be  prepared 
to  play  the  role  of  martyr,  whether  employee 
or  patron.  Employers  who  profit  by  the  no- 
wage  system  dislike  employees  with  a  degree 
of  self-respect  that  makes  them  rebel  at  gratui- 
ties. Such  wages  as  are  paid  are  so  nominal 
that  the  employee  cannot  subsist  upon  them 


76  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

alone.  He  either  has  to  quit  that  line  of  work 
or  enter  it  and  conform  to  the  conventional 
methods. 

In  Chapter  V  the  equity  of  tipping  certain 
employees  was  considered  and  the  claim  of  other 
employees  as  to  their  rights  will  be  considered 
briefly  here. 

BAGGAGEMEN 

Tipping  men  who  call  for  and  deliver  trunks 
has  become  a  fixed  custom  in  the  cities  and  is  ex- 
pected, though  not  so  often  practiced,  in  the 
smaller  towns.  The  transfer  company  theoreti- 
cally charge  for  the  complete  operation  of  mov- 
ing the  trunk  from  the  home  or  hotel  to  the 
railroad  station.  But  the  men  on  the  wagons 
or  trucks  exact  tips  for  carrying  the  baggage 
up  and  down  stairs  or  elevators.  The  question 
is,  are  they  entitled  to  this  extra  compensation? 
The  baggagemen  argue  that  their  business, 
strictly  interpreted,  is  to  carry  the  trunk  from 
the  house  to  the  station  and  that  going  up  stairs 
and  into  rooms  is  an  extra  service.  Hence, 
they  stand  around  and  make  it  evident  that  they 
expect  compensation  from  the  patron,  in  addi- 
tion to  their  wages  from  the  company. 


THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT         77 

Their  position  is  not  tenable.  A  patron  pays 
the  company  to  get  his  trunk  from  wherever  it 
may  be  and  to  deliver  it  to  its  destination. 
Whatever  operations  are  necessary  to  get  the 
trunk  are  the  natural  duties  of  the  company 
and  its  employees.  The  charges  of  the  com- 
pany are,  or  should  be,  based  on  the  complete 
service.  The  exaction  of  extra  compensation 
in  the  form  of  tips  by  the  employees,  therefore, 
is  an  imposition.  In  calling  the  company  no 
person,  tacitly  or  openly,  agrees  to  the  argu- 
ment that  the  trunk  is  to  be  moved  from  curb  to 
curb. 

The  understanding  is  that  your  baggage  is 
to  be  removed  from  its  customary  place  in  the 
home  to  the  customary  place  in  the  station  or 
other  destination.  It  would  be  as  reasonable 
for  baggagemen  to  dump  a  trunk  outside  a  sta- 
tion and  demand  a  gratuity  from  the  railroad 
for  bringing  it  inside,  as  to  demand  a  gratuity 
from  the  patron  for  taking  the  trunk  up  or  down 
stairs.  Tipping  to  baggagemen  is  unnecessary. 
If  the  company  pays  inadequate  wages  the 
remedy  lies  not  from  the  patron  through  tips 
out  from  the  employer  through  the  payment  of 
increased  wages. 


78  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

BOOTBLACKS 

Of  late  years  the  custom  has  grown  up  to  tip 
bootblacks.  This  is  in  addition  to  the  regular 
charge  paid  for  the  service  and  has  no  justifica- 
tion except  in  the  false  plea  of  the  servitor  that 
if  the  patron  does  not  tip  him  he  will  have  no 
compensation.  Here  it  may  be  stated  that  the 
thought  that  the  tip  constitutes  the  only  com- 
pensation the  employee  receives  is  the  chief  in- 
fluence in  the  mind  of  the  patron.  He  feels  a 
pity  for  the  employee  even  though  he  objects  to 
the  bad  economic  system  that  enables  employers 
to  engage  workers  on  such  a  basis.  The  em- 
ployees exploit  this  thought  in  the  mind  by  lead- 
ing the  conversation  with  the  patron  into  the 
channel  of  compensation.  At  some  time  during 
the  service  he  lets  the  patron  know  that  the  tips 
he  receives  are  his  only  compensation  and  this 
arouses  the  sense  of  obligation  in  the  patron 
who  does  not  like  to  have  his  shoes  shined  for 
nothing,  even  though  the  payment  at  the  desk 
covers  the  transaction. 

Any  one  who  has  patronized  a  restaurant 
regularly,  or  a  bootblack  stand,  or  a  barbershop, 
or  manicurist,  or  any  public  place,  will  recall 


THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT         79 

how  invariably  the  servitors  bring  up  the  sub- 
ject of  tipping  and  always  with  the  suggestion 
that  they  would  be  disabled  financially  if  it  were 
not  for  the  generosity  of  the  public. 

This  is  all  a  carefully  and  skilfully  planned 
campaign  to  exploit  the  patron. 

BARBER    SHOP    PORTERS 

Patrons  who  do  not  tip  barbers  frequently 
tip  the  porters  who  brush  them  down.  On  the 
surface  it  seems  that  the  porter's  attentions  in 
a  barber  shop  are  extra  and  deserve  extra  com- 
pensation. Yet,  theoretically,  no  master  bar- 
ber would  admit  that  a  patron  of  his  shop  has 
any  other  charges  to  pay  than  the  regular  tar- 
iffs. The  porter  is  there  as  an  extra  measure 
of  service  from  the  shop.  Practically,  however, 
the  shops  all  proceed  on  the  assumption  of  tip- 
ping. The  porter  is  a  much-aggrieved  indi- 
vidual if  he  is  overlooked.  In  any  sound  eco- 
nomic system,  the  porter's  compensation  should 
come  exclusively  from  the  shop.  If  his  atten- 
tions are  decided  to  be  extra,  there  should  be  a 
regular  scale  of  compensation,  as  for  a  hair  cut, 
which  the  patron  should  pay.  So  long  as  his 
services  are  furnished  by  the  shop  without  be- 


80  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

ing  included  in  the  regular  shop  tariffs,  the 
patron  owes  the  porter  nothing  for  his  atten- 
tions. 

The  solution  of  the  whole  tipping  problem 
lies  in  the  foregoing  postulate  —  that  if  any 
employee  is  in  a  position  to  render  an  extra 
service  there  should  be  a  regular  scale  of  charges 
for  such  service.  It  is  the  irregular  compensa- 
tion, depending  upon  the  whim  of  the  patron, 
that  makes  the  practice  economically  unsound. 
No  hotel,  or  other  employer,  should  have  on  the 
^premises  any  employee  whose  compensation  de- 
^  pends  upon  chance.  If  a  hotel  stations  an  em- 
ployee in  the  washroom  he  should  be  there  dis- 
tinctly as  part  of  the  service  for  which  a  patron 
pays  at  the  cashier's  desk.  A  porter  in  a  bar- 
ber shop  should  be  engaged  exclusively  at  the 
shop's  expense  as  part  of  the  complete  service 
for  which  a  patron  pays  to  the  cashier.  Em- 
ployers, however,  are  much  too  shrewd  to  scat- 
ter employees  around  on  the  formal  understand- 
ing that  the  patrons  are  to  compensate  them. 
They  pretend  that  they  are  engaged  as  an  ex- 
tra measure  of  courtesy  or  service  from  the  em- 
ployer and  then  are  educated  to  exact,  through 
tips,  their  compensation  from  the  patron. 


THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT         81 

DOOR    MEN 

It  would  seem  that  if  there  were  any  place 
where  the  patron  might  feel  free  to  forget  his 
coin  pocket,  it  would  be  in  the  use  of  doors. 
But  it  is  customary  now  to  tip  door  men.  That 
is,  you  have  to  pay  to  enter  a  hotel,  a  restau- 
rant or  other  public  place  in  order  to  spend 
money  with  the  employer.  The  employer  will 
smile  blandly  and  assure  you  that  no  patron 
need  tip  the  door  man,  but  the  door  man  will 
give  unmistakable  evidence  to  the  contrary. 
The  tipping  of  door  men  shows  how  the  custom 
grows  with  what  it  feeds  upon.  To  the  devotee 
of  the  custom  every  underling  has  an  itching 
palm  that  must  be  scratched  with  a  coin  and  the 
employer  rejoices  because  it  relieves  him  of 
wage-payments.  Tipping  doormen  is  incom- 
prehensibly weak.  Elevator  men  are  in  the 
same  class. 

GUIDES 

In  parks  and  other  public  places  where  the 
employer  or  the  Government  furnishes  guides 
and  where  patrons  pay  a  regular  fee  for  being 
shown  the  sights,  the  guides  carefully  cultivate 


82  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

the  tipping  propensity.  Their  most  common 
method  is  to  start  a  conversation  about  how  in- 
adequately they  are  paid  for  their  work  and  the 
high  cost  of  living.  They  play  upon  the  sympa- 
thies of  the  sight-seers  until  at  the  end  of  the 
trip  the  feeling  is  strong  that  the  guide  should 
be  remembered.  He  pockets  the  gratuity  and 
looks  for  other  game.  The  patrons  overlook 
the  fact  that  if  he  is  underpaid  the  employer  or 
the  Government  is  at  fault.  He  often  works 
in  the  appearance  of  extra  attentions  to  create 
the  sense  of  obligation.  It  is  clearly  a  case 
of  double  compensation  for  one  service. 

HATBOYS 

The  cloak-room  is  one  of  the  best  devices  for 
throwing  the  item  of  wages  to  the  shoulders  of 
patrons.  Por  some  one  to  check  and  guard 
your  hat  and  overcoat  while  you  see  a  show  or 
dine  has  a  speaking  likeness  to  a  real  extra 
service.  But  it  is  as  counterfeit  as  the  other 
pretenses  of  extra  service.  It  is  every  restau- 
rant's or  theater's  duty  to  provide  for  hats 
and  coats  of  patrons.  The  meal  or  the  show 
cannot  be  enjoyed  unless  this  preliminary  func- 
tion is  performed  by  the  proprietor.  When  two 


THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT         83 

dollars  is  paid  for  a  theater  ticket  it  also  pays 
for  this  service,  and  extra  compensation  to  the 
attendant  in  charge  may  be  defended  as  charity 
but  not  as  an  obligation.  A  patron  who  buys 
a  meal  in  a  restaurant  owes  the  cloak-room  at- 
tendants nothing.  He  paid  for  their  service  in 
paying  for  the  meal.  Tips  to  hatboys  are 
superfluous. 

JANITOKS 

The  autocrat  of  the  basement  is  a  man  with  a 
grievance  even  when  generously  tipped.  From 
his  viewpoint  he  is  called  upon  to  do  a  score  of 
things  outside  his  duties.  Must  he  do  these  for 
nothing?  He  must  not.  The  only  question  is 
who  shall  pay  him.  The  janitor  should  be 
hired  by  employers  upon  the  understanding  that 
the  renters  have  the  right  of  way  in  utilizing  his 
services.  Or,  apartments  should  be  leased  with 
a  clear  understanding  of  the  janitor's  duties,  so 
that  he  will  have  no  lee-way  to  exploit  the 
renters.  On  the  face  of  it,  the  idea  of  defining 
a  janitor's  services  so  that  everything  outside 
of  the  regulations  would  be  extra  service  for 
which  the  renter  should  compensate  him,  seems 
difficult  of  execution.  But  the  difficulty  is  less 


84  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

real  than  apparent.  And  in  the  meantime,  the 
janitor  regularly  is  tipped  to  do  things  for 
which  he  is  paid  by  the  employer.  He  is  "  out 
for  his  "  as  eagerly  as  the  waiter  or  the  Pullman 
porter.  Hallboys  in  the  apartment  houses  are 
equally  avaricious.  Now  and  then  the  metro- 
politan papers  contain  letters  to  the  editor  com- 
plaining of  their  exactions  —  pathetic  letters 
from  well-to-do  persons  paying  thousands  of 
dollars'  rent  for  apartments!  One  way  out 
would  be  to  insert  in  a  lease  that  the  renter  shall 
receive  full  and  equal  service  without  extra  com- 
pensation to  employees. 

MANICURISTS 

These  young  women  have  the  best  psycho- 
logical opportunity  to  exact  tribute,  particu- 
larly where  the  patrons  are  men.  The  personal 
contact  is  influential,  and  the  plaintive  tale  of 
meager  salary  and  small  tips  which  she  purrs 
into  your  ears,  the  meanwhile  flashing  a  lan- 
guishing smile  —  it's  a  great  little  game  which 
she  plays  for  all  it  is  worth!  Some  of  them 
receive  eight  dollars  a  week  in  "  salary,"  and 
the  tips  amount  to  enough  to  make  their  income 
thirty-five  a  week  and  more.  The  employer  has 


THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT         85 

the  fifty,  seventy-five  cents  or  a  dollar  charge 
for  the  service  as  practically  clear  profit. 
Many  men  tip  the  manicurist  as  much  as  they 
pay  for  the  service.  Perhaps  many  of  them 
feel  that  they  get  their  money's  worth  in  social 
enjoyment  —  not  believing  that  the  young 
woman  bestows  the  same  charm  upon  every 
other  male  victim !  "  I  feel  sorry  for  that  little 
Miss  Brown.  If  it  wasn't  for  the  tips  she 
couldn't  live  on  her  salary,"  said  one  sympa- 
thetic man.  He  objected  to  tipping  as  a  rule, 
but  here  was  a  clear  case  where  it  was  worthy ! 
No  use  arguing  ethics  with  him. 

MESSENGERS 

The  custom  of  pay  to  telegraph  messenger 
boys  by  the  recipients  of  messages  is  peculiarly 
reprehensible  because  it  is  fixing  a  standard  of 
graft  in  his  mind  that  will  work  out  into  worse 
practices  in  maturity.  A  boy  given  a  tip  has 
had  his  self-respect  punctured  in  a  dangerous 
way.  He  may  grow  up  and  out  of  such  a  con- 
ception of  compensation,  but  it  will  be  a  strug- 
gle, and  much  of  our  police  and  other  public 
graft  had  its  origin  in  the  cultivation  of  the  be- 
lief that  "  tips  "  are  proper.  A  messenger  boy 


86  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

has  absolutely  no  claim  upon  a  patron  for  extra 
compensation.  The  price  of  a  telegram  in- 
cludes the  cost  of  delivery. 

STENOGRAPHERS 

Public  typists  often  expect  gratuities.  The 
regular  charges  are  for  "  the  house."  They 
want  something  for  themselves  on  the  side. 
Sometimes  the  tips  are  so  large  that  the  em- 
ployer gets  greedy  and  requires  them  to  be 
turned  in,  as  proved  by  the  following  extract 
from  a  want  ad  in  the  New  York  Times : 

"  Remuneration  half  of  all  you  make  with 
weekly  guarantee  of  $20 ;  proceeds  net  more 
than  guarantee.  No  smoking;  tips  must  be 
turned  in." 

It  seems  self-evident  that  anything  given  to 
stenographers  beyond  the  regular  charges  for 
the  work  is  pure  waste.  They  cannot  possibly 
give  any  service  in  return,  and  cannot  retain 
the  proper  self-respect  in  accepting  something 
for  nothing.  Many  of  them,  however,  take 
the  tips  simply  to  avoid  offending  patrons. 

The  list  of  tip-takers  is  too  extensive  for  in- 
dividual consideration.  Bath  attendants,  bar- 
tenders, house  servants,  clerks  —  and  so  on 


THE  EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT         87 

through  a  lamentably  long  list,  have  the  same 
moral  disease.     The  contagion  is  spreading  in 
an  alarming  way.     Of  course,  the  whole  sys-  X 
tern  is  riding  for  a  fall. 

The  spurious  and  specious  arguments  of  em- 
ployees in  behalf  of  the  custom  and  the  timor- 
ous acquiescence  of  the  public  will  alike  yield 
before  a  robust  and  elemental  Americanism.  * 


XI 

THE  EMPLOYER  VIEWPOINT 

"  WE  face  a  condition,  not  a  theory,"  as- 
sert those  employers  who  defend  their  adapta- 
tion of  wages  to  the  tipping  custom.  "  The 
public  seems  determined  to  bestow  gratuities, 
and  if  we  paid  full  wages  in  addition,  our  em- 
ployees would  be  the  highest  paid  workers  in 
the  world." 

But  two  wrongs  do  not  make  a  right. 

THREE    KINDS    OF    EMPLOYERS 

Employers  who  profit  by  tipping  are  classi- 
fied as  follows: 

1.  Those  who  pay  living  wages  and  positively 
forbid  gratuities. 

2.  Those  who  pay  average  competitive  wages 
and  maintain  a  passive  attitude  toward  gratui- 
ties. 

3.  Those  who  pay  minimum,  or  no,  wages, 

and  aggressively  exploit  the  propensity  to  give. 

88 


THE  EMPLOYER  VIEWPOINT         89 

At  present  the  first  class  constitutes  almost 
an  infinitesimal  minority.  Here  and  there  in 
large  cities  there  are  barber  shops  which  ad- 
vertise a  "  No-Tip  "  policy,  and  occasionally  a 
hotel  or  restaurant. 

In  the  second  class  are  most  of  the  moderate- 
price  places  catering  to  the  public.  The  em- 
ployers and  employees  welcome  gratuities  but 
do  not  make  them  the  prime  object  in  their 
relations  with  patrons. 

The  third  class  includes  the  high-grade  hotels, 
sleeping  car  companies,  expensively  conducted 
restaurants  and  like  enterprises.  This  is  the 
class  which  sets  the  pace  through  the  patron- 
age of  the  socially  or  financially  prominent. 

A  few  of  the  more  noteworthy  employers  who 
profit  by  the  custom  follow : 

The  Pullman  Company, 

The  Hotel  Company, 

The  Taxicab  Company, 

The  Transfer  Company, 

The  Steam  Ship  Company, 

The  Master  Barber, 

The  Apartment  House  Owner, 

The  Restaurant, 

The  Telegraph  Company, 


90  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

That  an  organized  conspiracy  exists  between 
employers  and  employees  to  exploit  the  public  is 
realized  vaguely,  if  at  all,  by  the  average  pa- 
tron. 

Proof  of  this  allegation  may  be  found  at  the 
cashier's  desk  of  almost  any  restaurant  or  hotel. 
The  waiter  invariably  is  given  change  that  will 
make  it  easy  for  the  patron  to  tip.  He  re- 
turns with  the  change  arranged  in  such  a  way 
on  the  tray  that  the  patron  must  fumble  over 
all  of  it  if  he  wants  the  full  amount.  The  em- 
ployer's and  the  waiter's  theory  is  that,  rather 
than  do  this,  he  will  leave  a  dime  or  a  quarter 
in  one  corner.  In  a  barber  shop  the  patron  al- 
ways receives  small  change  so  that  it  will  be  easy 
to  "  remember  "  the  porter. 

Yet,  such  a  practice  is  the  mildest  indictment 
that  may  be  brought  against  employers  for  en- 
tering a  conspiracy  to  exploit  patrons. 

SELLING    THE    TIP    PRIVILEGE 

In  New  York  and  Chicago  particularly,  many 
employers  went  so  far  (and  still  maintain  the 
practice)  as  to  sell  to  outside  persons  and  com- 
panies the  privilege  of  collecting  the  tips  in 
their  places  of  business.  That  is  to  say,  these 


THE  EMPLOYER  VIEWPOINT         91 

outside  parties  were  to  furnish  waiters,  cloak 
room  attendants  and  other  employees  to  the 
hotel  or  restaurant  and  depend  upon  the  tips 
for  their  remuneration. 

So  large  was  the  sum  realized  from  tips  that 
the  hotels  and  restaurants  actually  charged  the  / 
outside  parties  thousands  of  dollars  for  the  con-  Y 
cession.  In  Illinois  a  law  was  passed  in  191S 
aimed  directly  at  this  organized  phase  of  the 
custom.  It  prohibited  hotels  and  others  from 
selling  tipping  privileges.  The  men  who  owned 
such  privileges  promptly  went  to  law  to  test  the 
constitutionality  of  the  act.  To  the  tip-taker 
anything  is  unconstitutional  that  interferes 
with  his  graft! 

At  the  time  the  law  went  into  effect,  the  situa- 
tion was  reported  in  the  Chicago  Tribune  as 
follows : 

"  The  state  will  have  a  fight  on  its  hands  be- 
fore the  Chicago  tip  trust  .  .  .  releases  its 
clutch  on  the  pocketbooks  of  hotel  and  restau- 
rant patrons. 

"  At  midnight  last  night  .  .  .  there  was  no 
indication  the  largess  was  going  anywhere  else 
than  it  has  gone  before  ever  since  a  commercial 
genius  capitalized  the  well-known  generosity  of 


92  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

the  dining  and  wining  public  —  straight  into  the 
coffers  of  the  trust." 

The  manager  of  one  of  the  leading  hotels  said 
that  lawyers  for  the  hotel  had  served  notice  on 
the  head  of  the  biggest  of  Chicago's  three  tip 
trusts  to  withdraw  his  minions. 

"  Do  you  contemplate  returning  part  of  the 
money  paid  for  the  concession?  "  he  was  asked. 

"  That,"  the  manager  replied,  "  is  a  detail." 

"Do  you  think  it  possible  (the  head  of  the 
tip  trust)  will  resist  expulsion?  " 

"  Hardly.  We'll  just  put  in  a  crew  of  our 
own  and  that  will  end  it." 

"  Have  you  heard  a  report  that  the  tip  trusts 
contemplate  standing  by  their  guns  and,  if 
necessary,  charging  a  10  cent  fee  for  checking 
hats  and  coats,  anticipating  the  tip?  " 

"  That's  preposterous." 

After  such  evidence,  patrons  of  hotels  and 
other  public  service  places  hardly  will  feel  as 
cheerful  in  giving  tips  as  they  may  have  felt 
before  being  enlightened.  Here  was  a  typical 
instance  of  a  hotel  advertising  such  and  such 
rates  for  rooms  and  food  with  the  plain  in- 
ference that  patrons  had  no  other  obligation. 
Then  the  management  goes  out  and  sells  the 


THE  EMPLOYER  VIEWPOINT         93 

right  to  exploit  the  patrons,  thereby  filling  its 
dining  rooms  and  cloak  rooms  with  employees 
who  must  exact  tips  if  they  are  to  be  paid  at 
all  for  their  work ! 

ARE    YOU    A    BENEFACTOR? 

A  small  part  of  the  public  cares  nothing 
about  this  and  will  tip  regardless  of  the  condi- 
tions of  employment  of  the  servitors.  This  ele- 
ment simply  enjoys  the  grandiloquent  role  of 
Bestower  of  Largess.  But  the  vast  majority 
of  Americans  has  followed  the  custom  under 
duress.  This  majority  finds  it  repugnant  to 
tip  on  the  assumption  that  the  employee  alone 
profits  by  its  generosity;  and  to  discover  that 
the  employer  as  well  profits  by  it  —  in  fact 
secretly  devises  methods  of  encouraging  the 
tipping  —  will  confirm  the  majority  in  the 
thought  that  the  custom  is  wholly  bad. 

Under  which  school  of  economics,  or  ethics, 
can  such  a  system  be  justified? 

The  assertion  of  employers  that  tipping  is 
the  spontaneous  impulse  of  patrons  and  that 
they  cannot  afford  to  pay  living  wages  in  addi- 
tion is  seen  to  be  without  foundation  in  conspicu- 
ous instances.  Such  spontaneity  as  exists  they 


94  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

stimulate    and    exploit    for    their    own    profit. 

Conceding  that  the  development  of  tipping 
has  thrown  employment  upon  an  abnormal 
basis,  the  question  arises,  if  tipping  is  abolished 
should  the  increase  in  wages  be  borne  exclusively 
by  the  employer? 

To  the  extent  that  employers  make  extraordi- 
nary dividends  out  of  the  custom  the  extra  cost 
of  operation  through  normal  wages  should  be 
borne  by  them  without  increased  tariffs  to  pa- 
trons. Competition  in  the  hotel  business,  for 
example,  has  been  adjusted  to  the  custom  of 
tipping  and  the  sudden  throwing  of  a  bona 
fide  wage  system  upon  such  employers,  with- 
out an  increase  in  revenues,  would  be  disas- 
trous. 

A    SEASONABLE    SOLUTION 

The  solution  in  certain  instances  might  be 
found  in  a  joint  obligation  of  patron  and  em- 
ployer. The  employer  says :  "  I  have  been 
able  to  give  you  food  at  such  and  such  a  price 
because  I  have  not  had  to  charge  to  it  the  cost 
of  waiter  hire.  If  the  public  discontinues  gra- 
tuities to  my  employees,  I  must  raise  the  price 
of  food  to  cover  this  deficit."  The  patron  re- 


THE  EMPLOYER  VIEWPOINT         95 

plies :  "  Upon  proof  that  your  food  tariffs 
have  not  included  the  item  of  waiter-hire,  I 
will  pay  more  for  my  meals  if  they  are  served 
free." 

The  goal  of  a  reform  in  tipping  is  to  make 
one  payment  —  and  that  one  to  the  employer 
—  cover  every  expense  of  the  patron. 

Even  if  the  public  should  have  to  pay  more 
for  food,  lodging  and  other  service,  if  tipping 
is  abolished,  an  immense  advance  in  sound  eco- 
nomics and  democratic  ethics  would  be  made  in 
eliminating  the  double-payment  system.  Where 
two  payments  are  made  —  to  employer  and 
employee  —  it  is  inevitable  that  the  patron  will 
lose. 

It  should  be  understood,  however,  that  a  large 
part  of  the  $200,000,000  or  more  given  an- 
nually by  Americans  in  gratuities  is  sheer  waste 
because  it  is  given  for  absolutely  nothing  in  re- 
turn. Such  waste  should  be  eliminated  without 
consideration  of  employer  or  employee. 

So  long  as  employers  assume  that  the  public 
will  pay  part  or  all  of  the  wages  of  employees, 
so  long  will  the  employees  be  under  the  necessity 
of  resorting  to  outrageous  tactics  —  coddling 
the  patron  who  does  tip,  insulting  and  neglect- 


96  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

ing  the  one  who  does  not  tip  —  in  order  to  ob- 
tain pay  for  their  services. 

Employers  must  come  to  the  viewpoint  that 
tipping  is  morally  wrong,  and  therefore  of 
necessity,  economically  unsound.  The  money 
they  make  out  of  tipping  is  tainted  money. 
Employees  should  be  engaged  on  wages  that  are 
adequate  without  regard  to  any  gratuities  that 
may  be  given. 


XII 

ONE  STEP  FORWARD 

WHEN  the  Hotel  Statler,  in  Buffalo,  an- 
nounced that  a  guest  need  not  tip  its  employees 
in  order  to  get  satisfactory  service,  a  sensa- 
tion was  sprung  upon  hotel  managers  and  the 
traveling  public.  Nothing  more  emphatically 
shows  the  abnormal  state  of  mind  toward  tip- 
ping than  that  such  an  elementary  right  should 
be  affirmed  and  cause  surprise  in  the  affirmation. 

A    SOUND    CODE 

Following  is  its  Code  to  employes  on  the 
practice  of  tipping: 

"  The  patron  of  a  hotel  goes  there  because  he 
expects  to  receive  certain  things  served  with 
celerity,  courtesy  and  cheerfulness. 

"  The  persons  who  are  to  fetch  and  carry 
him  these  things  will  be  those  whose  portion  it  is 
to  render  intimate,  personal  services  to  others. 
Since  time  immemorial,  this  class  of  servitors 
has  been  of  the  rank  and  file. 
97 


98  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

"  Now  and  then  a  server  is  found  —  a  waiter, 
a  bootblack,  a  barber  or  a  bell  boy  —  who  adds 
a  bit  of  his  own  personality  to  his  services. 
Such  a  one  shows  a  bit  more  intelligence  —  in- 
itiative —  perspicacity  —  than  his  fellows.  The 
patron  finds  his  smaller  wants  anticipated,  and 
is  pleased.  He  feels  that  the  servant  has  given 
him  something  extra  and  unexpected  —  and  he 
wants  to  pay  something  extra  for  it. 

"  He  tips. 

"  Of  course  there  are  abuses  of  the  tip.  A 
rich  bounder  wants  something  more  than  other 
hotel  guests,  and  he  futilely  tries  to  get  it  by 
throwing  money  about. 

"  His  tips  are  insults,  and  his  reward  Ser- 
vility instead  of  service. 

"Or  — 

"  An    individual    wishing   to    be    thought    a 

<  good  fellow 9  ADMINISTERS  tips  with  the 
advice  to  *  buy  a  house  and  lot,'  etc. 

"Or  — 

"  An  infrequent  traveler,  having  the  time  of 
his  life,  tips  out  of  sheer  goodheartedness. 

"  These     types     help     to     constitute     the 

<  Public.' 

"  It  is  the  business  of  a  good  hotel  to  cater 
to  the  Public.  It  is  the  avowed  business  of  the 
Hotel  Statler  to  please  the  public  better  than 
any  other  hotel  in  the  world.  . 

"  Statler  can  run  a  tipless  hotel  if  he  wants 
to. 


ONE  STEP  FORWARD  99 

"  But  Statler  knows  that  a  first-class  hotel 
cannot  be  maintained  on  a  tip-less  basis,  for  the 
reason  that  a  small  but  certain  per  cent,  of  its 
guests  will  tip,  in  spite  of  all  rules. 

"  Statler  can  and  does  do  this :  He  guar- 
antees to  his  guests  who  do  not  wish  to  tip, 
everything  —  EVERYTHING  —  in  the  way 
of  hotel  service,  courtesy,  etc.,  that  the  tipper 
gets. 

"  Let's  make  that  a  bit  stronger  —  guests  do 
NOT  have  to  tip  at  Hotel  Statler  to  get 
courteous,  polite,  attentive  service. 

"  Or,  for  final  emphasis,  we  say  to  Statler 
guests :  Please  do  NOT  tip  unless  you  feel  like 
it ;  but  if  you  DO  tip,  let  your  tipping  be  yield- 
ing to  a  genuine  desire  —  not  conforming  to  an 
outrageous  custom. 

"  Any  Statler  employee  who  is  wise  and  dis- 
creet enough  to  merit  tips  is  wise  and  discreet 
enough  to  render  a  like  service  whether  he  is 
tipped  or  not. 

"  And  he  is  wise  and  discreet  enough  to  say 
'  thank  you '  when  he  gets  his  tip. 

"  In  this  connection  let  this  be  said : 

"  The  man  who  takes  a  tip  and  does  not 
thank  the  tipper  does  not  feel  that  he  has  earned 
the  tip  any  more  than  a  blackmailer  feels  that 
he  has  earned  his  blood  money. 

"  Any  Statler  employee  who  fails  to  give 
Service,  or  who  fails  to  thank  the  guest  who 
gives  him  something,  falls  short  of  the  Statler 


100  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

Standard.  We  always  thank  any  guest  who 
reports  such  a  case  to  us.  Statler  does  not 
deal  summarily  with  his  helpers,  any  more  than 
he  deals  perfunctorily  with  his  guests  —  but  the 
tip-grafters  get  short  shrift  here." 

FOR    THE    BENEFIT    OF    GUESTS 

To  understand  the  spirit  of  management 
which  could  issue  such  instructions  to  its  em- 
ployees in  the  face  of  the  opportunity  to  ex- 
ploit the  public,  as  most  hotels  do  and  so  throw 
the  whole  cost  of  wages  upon  the  patron,  it  is 
necessary  to  consider  other  sections  of  the  Code 
treating  of  professional  hospitality. 

"  Hotel  Statler  is  operated  primarily  for  the 
benefit  and  convenience  of  its  guests.  Without 
guests  there  could  be  no  Hotel  Statler.  These 
are  simple  Facts  easily  understood. 

"The  Statler  is  a  successful  hotel.  The 
Reason  is,  that  every  Waiter  in  this  hotel,  every 
Hall-Boy,  the  Chambermaid,  the  Clerk,  the 
Chef,  the  Manager,  the  Boss  Himself,  is  work- 
ing all  the  time  to  make  them  FEEL  '  at  home.' 

"  Hotel  service  —  that  is,  Hotel  Statler  serv- 
ice —  means  the  limit  of  Courteous,  Efficient 
Attention  from  Each  Particular  Employee  to 
Each  Particular  Guest.  This  is  the  kind  of 
service  a  Guest  pays  for  when  he  pays  us  his 
bill  —  whether  it  is  for  $2.00  or  $20.00  per 


ONE  STEP  FORWARD  1-01 

day.  It  is  the  kind  of  Service  he  is  entitled  to, 
and  he  NEED  NOT  and  SHOULD  NOT  pay 
ANY  MORE." 

NOT    HOSPITALITY 

Compare  the  attitude  of  management  toward 
guests  as  revealed  in  this  code  with  the  bristling, 
belligerent  attitude  of  employees  in  other  first- 
class  places  where  tipping  is  undisciplined !  In 
the  average  hotel  where  the  management  en- 
courages the  tipping  for  economic  reasons  the 
bell-boy  will  make  a  scene  if  you  fail  to  tip  him 
after  he  carries  your  suit-case  from  the  lobby 
to  your  room.  Every  other  employee  has  the 
same  spirit  —  he  has  to  have  it  if  he  is  to  be 
compensated  at  all,  for  the  employer  puts  it 
squarely  up  to  him  to  work  the  guest  for  his 
wages. 

Apparently  this  hotel  reached  the  conviction 
that  this  was  not  hospitality. 

Then  the  conviction  was  reached  that  a  guest 
"  need  not  and  should  not  pay  any  more  "  for 
hotel  service  than  the  rate  paid  at  the  desk. 
From  this  it  was  logical  to  bring  the  employees 
to  a  new  conception  of  service  and  to  stop  the 
piratical  practice  toward  guests  who  do  not 

tip. 


10S  THE-  ITCHING  PALM 

It  is  particularly  significant  to  note  the  as- 
sertion that  the  proprietor  can  run  a  tipless 
hotel  if  he  wants  to.  That  is  an  interesting 
declaration.  It  proves  that  those  managers 
who  exploit  the  tipping  propensity  deliberately 
do  so  for  reasons  of  greed. 

Then  the  reason  for  not  running  a  tipless 
hotel  is  stated  to  be  that  "  a  small  but  certain 
per  cent,  of  its  guests  will  tip  in  spite  of  all 
rules."  Here  is  evidence  that  the  public  has 
its  measure  of  blame  for  the  custom  as  well  as 
the  avarice  of  managers.  This  hotel  declares 
that  its  conception  of  hospitality  is  to  leave 
the  guest  free  in  his  relation  toward  employees. 
But  note  this !  It  does  not  leave  the  employees 
free  in  their  attitude  toward  guests. 

UP    TO    THE    EMPLOYER 

The  foregoing  distinction  is  the  crux  of  the 
whole  tipping  problem.  If  managers  will  re- 
strain and  discipline  empk^ees  so  that  they 
will  not  run  riot  in  their  eagerness  to  exact  toll 
from  patrons  the  tipping  evil  will  be  reduced 
to  a  minimum. 

THE    FIRST    STEP 

It  is  not  the  idea  underlying  this  discussion 


ONE  STEP  FORWARD  103 

to  consider  that  a  satisfactory  disposal  of  the 
tipping  custom  has  been  made  when  managers 
insure  equal  treatment  for  those  who  do  not 
tip  in  comparison  with  those  who  do  tip.  Noth- 
ing short  of  the  complete  abolition  of  the  cus- 
tom can  be  the  goal  in  a  republic.  But  as  a 
long  stride  toward  the  goal,  the  Code  cited 
above  is  noteworthy.  It  constitutes  the  first 
immediate  step  that  any  hotel  may  take. 

The  public  would  find  immense  relief  in  the 
general  adoption  of  the  foregoing  idea  —  that 
tipping  must  "  be  yielding  to  a  genuine  desire 
—  not  conforming  to  an  outrageous  custom." 
Inasmuch  as  the  vast  majority  of  Americans 
who  tip  do  so  only  because  they  are  afraid  not 
to  conform  to  an  outrageous  custom,  this  plan, 
honestly  enforced  upon  employees,  will  reduce 
the  followers  of  the  custom  to  the  small  per- 
centage of  the  public  who  tip  because  of  pride  x^ 
or  moral  obtuseness.  A  way  can  be  found  to 
handle  this  element  when  the  majority  have  been 
freed. 

Once  the  proof  is  at  hand  that  tipping  can 
be  handled  the  conclusion  is  unescapable  that 
the  managers  who  knuckle  to  the  custom  are 
u  corrupt  and  contented."  They  are  on  pre- 


104  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

cisely  the  same  moral  level  as  their  employees. 

THE    GUEST'S    EIGHTS 

In  the  meantime,  the  individual  patron  has 
the  right  to  and  should  proceed  on  the  theory 
that  he  is  entitled  to  EVERYTHING  in  the  way  of 
service  for  the  one  payment.  This  is  his  com- 
mon law  right  even  if  no  special  laws  regulat- 
ing tipping  are  in  force. 

The  public  is  at  a  great  disadvantage  in  com- 
bating the  tipping  evil  when  the  managers  leave 
the  issue  to  be  settled  between  the  patrons  and 
the  employees.  A  bell  boy  can  commit  an  of- 
fense to  a  patron  who  does  not  tip  that  is  per- 
fectly tangible  to  the  patron  but  difficult  to  re- 
port to  the  manager.  Unless  the  manager 
takes  a  positive  hand  and  instructs  his  em- 
ployees in  a  manner  similar  to  the  above  Code 
it  is  likely  that  most  persons  will  continue  to 
pay  tribute  rather  than  be  insulted  and 
neglected. 

In  Chicago,  the  Young  Men's  Christian  As- 
sociation operates  a  nineteen-story  hotel  where 
tips  are  prohibited,  and  this  organization  gen- 
erally discourages  the  custom  in  its  enterprises. 


XIII 
THE  SLEEPING-CAR  PHASE 

THE  Pullman  company  stands  in  the  public 
mind  as  the  leading  exponent  of  tipping.  It 
certainly  is  the  largest  beneficiary  of  the  cus- 
tom, as  a  simple  calculation  will  show. 

The  company  has  about  6,500  porters,  who 
receive  $27.50  a  month  in  wages.  Suppose 
the  porters  received  no  tips.  The  company 
then  would  have  to  pay  living  wages.  Assum- 
ing that  the  long  hours  of  work  would  not  at- 
tract desirable  porters  under  a  straight  wage 
system  without  at  least  $60  a  month  pay,  each 
one  of  the  6,500  would  have  an  increase  of 
$32.50  a  month,  or  $390  a  year. 

This  would  mean  an  increase  in  the  com- 
pany's annual  pay-roll  of  $2,535,000! 

In  other  words,  the  company  saves  about 
two  and  a  half  millions  a  year  through  the  tips 
given  to  its  porters.  What  part  of  the  large 
105 


106  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

annual  dividend  is  furnished  by  this  saving  is 
a  secret  of  the  company's  books. 

Some  of  these  porters  after  many  years' 
service  receive  $42  a  month  in  wages,  and  this 
would  bring  down  the  foregoing  estimate, 
though  not  to  any  radical  extent.  The  tips 
bring  their  incomes  to  $100,  $150,  $200  and 
more  a  month!  There  are,  of  course,  many 
runs  on  which  the  porters  derive  smaller 
amounts  in  gratuities,  and  the  best  runs  are 
given  as  a  reward  for  long  and  faithful  service. 

WHAT    THE    PULLMAN    MANAGER    SAID 

The  Walsh  Commission,  appointed  to  investi- 
gate industrial  conditions  in  the  United  States, 
in  1915  singled  out  the  Pullman  tipping  prac- 
tice for  investigation.  Some  of  the  testimony 
given  by  the  general  manager  of  the  company 
follows : 

"  The  company  simply  accepts  conditions  as 
it  finds  them.  The  company  did  not  invent 
tipping.  It  was  here  when  the  company  be- 
gan." 

"  What  do  you  say  to  making  tipping  unlaw- 
ful and  paying  employees  a  living  wage? " 
Chairman  Walsh  asked. 

"  If  such  a  condition  arises,  I  presume  we 


THE  SLEEPING-CAR  PHASE        107 

would  have  to  pay  wages  necessary  to  get  the 


"  Do  you  get  your  negroes  in  the  South?  " 

"  Yes,  we  have  been  looking  after  them  in  the 
South.  The  South  is  a  bigger  field  and  the  men 
there  are  more  adapted  for  the  work  than  the 
Northern  negroes." 

"  Well,  be  plain,"  Chairman  Walsh  said, 
"  are  the  negroes  from  the  South  more  docile 
and  less  independent  than  those  from  the 
North?  " 

"  Well,  no,  but  the  Southern  negro  is  more 
pleasing  to  the  traveling  public.  He  is  more 
adapted  to  wait  on  people  and  serve  with  a 
smile." 

•  •••••• 

"  Can  a  man  live  on  $27.50  a  month  and  rear 
a  family  ?  " 

"  Really,  I  don't  know.     He  might." 

"  Does  the  Pullman  company  have  in  mind 
the  liberality  and  kindness  of  the  public  when 
it  fixes  that  rate  of  pay  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  should  say  that  tips  have  something 
to  do  with  it.  I  didn't  make  the  rates  of  pay." 

"  A  porter  must  call  passengers  during  the 
night,  polish  shoes,  answer  bells,  and  look  after 
the  safety  and  comfort  of  the  passengers  at  all 
hours,  must  he  not?  " 


108  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

"  Yes.  He  is  reprimanded,  suspended  or  dis- 
charged for  infractions  of  the  rules." 

"  What  is  your  attitude  toward  the  question 
of  an  organization  among  your  employees?  " 

"  I  felt  that  the  movement  to  form  a  federa- 
tion of  our  employees  was  a  selfish  one  on  the 
part  of  a  few." 

WHAT    THE    PORTERS    SAID 

The  Commission  also  called  several  porters 
to  testify.  They  stated  that  they  could  not 
live  without  the  tips.  One  porter  with  twenty- 
one  years'  service  behind  him  testified  that  he 
receives  $42  a  month  in  wages,  while  the  tips 
averaged  about  $75  a  month,  or  $117  income 
from  the  company  and  the  public. 

Another  porter  receiving  $27.50  a  month 
testified  that  his  tips  averaged  about  $77  a 
month.  He  was  described  as  wearing  two 
diamond  rings  and  being  tastefully  dressed. 

The  conductors  receive  from  $70  to  $90  a 
month  in  salary,  and  it  was  brought  out  before 
the  Commission  that  many  do  not  consider  it 
dishonest  to  "  knock  down "  on  seat  sales. 
This  is  accomplished  partly  at  the  company's 
expense,  and  partly  at  the  expense  of  patrons 
—  especially  unsophisticated  travelers  who  buy 


THE  SLEEPING-CAR  PHASE        109 

a  whole  seat  but  have  other  passengers  sit  be- 
side them,  the  conductor  pocketing  the  extra 
payment.  This  practice  is  limited  to  day 
runs.  There  is  also  the  opportunity  to  over- 
charge. 

That  the  Pullman  company  gives  the  public 
good  service  through  its  porters  is  indisputable. 
The  only  question  is  whether  the  public  should 
pay  extra  for  this  service.  If  a  porter  with 
an  income  of  $117,  say,  receives  only  $27.50 
from  the  company,  the  public  is  paying  three- 
fourths  of  his  wages  and  the  company  only  one- 
fourth.  Where  the  porters  have  incomes  of 
$150  to  $200  a  month  the  company  pays  one- 
fifth  to  one-eighth  of  the  amount  and  the  public 
pays  from  four-fifths  to  seven-eighths ! 

SERVICE    INCLUDED 

The  price  of  a  ticket  on  a  sleeping  car  is  as 
much  as  a  patron  should  pay  the  Pullman  com- 
pany, and  it  should  carry  with  it  adequate 
porter  service. 

A  passenger  enters  a  car  in  spick  and  span 
condition  as  a  rule.  At  the  end  of  the  journey, 
through  no  fault  of  his  own,  he  may  be  dusty, 
and  it  becomes  the  obligation  of  the  Pullman 


110  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

company  to  discharge  him  in  as  good  condi- 
tion as  when  he  entered  the  car.  The  porter  is 
there  for  this  service.  Hence,  to  give  him  a 
tip  for  a  "  brush,"  or  for  any  other  service  he 
may  have  rendered  to  make  the  use  of  the  com- 
pany's property  comfortable,  is  a  superfluous 
payment. 

The  company  has  a  school  for  training  a 
porter  in  which  he  is  taught  a  rigid  discipline 
of  attentions  to  passengers,  all  of  which  tend 
to  create  in  the  passenger  a  sense  of  obligation 
toward  the  porter.  Yet  not  one  of  these  atten- 
tions calls  for  a  gratuity  if  they  are  examined 
fairly. 

The  porter  is  psychologist  enough  to  know 
that  to  create  the  illusion  that  he  has  rendered 
an  extra  service  is  as  good  for  producing  a  tip 
as  actually  to  do  so.  Hence  he  will  come 
around  with  a  pillow,  or  shine  your  shoes  dur- 
ing the  night  unsolicited,  or  execute  some  other 
maneuver  that  arouses  a  feeling  of  obligation. 
The  shining  of  shoes  is  outside  his  ordinary 
duties,  but  he  has  no  valid  claim  for  compensa- 
tion unless  specifically  requested  to  perform  this 
service.  In  his  mind  is  the  constant  reminder 
that  if  the  passenger  does  not  make  a  dona- 


THE  SLEEPING-CAR  PHASE        111 

tion  his  pay  envelope  from  the  company  will 
not  meet  his  bills. 

WHAT    THE    PRESS    SAID 

Among  the  many  editorial  comments  that 
the  disclosures  of  the  Walsh  Commission  evoked 
is  the  following  from  the  St.  Louis  Republic: 

The  most  captious  critic  of  the  Pullman 
company  cannot  deny  that  it  merits  a  unique 
distinction.  Other  corporations  before  now 
have  underpaid  their  employees  .  .  .  but  it  re- 
mained for  the  Pullman  company  to  discover 
how  to  work  on  the  sympathies  of  the  public  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  induce  that  public  to  make 
up,  by  gratuities,  for  its  failure  to  pay  its  em- 
ployees a  living  wage. 

It  began  this  forty  years  ago,  when  the 
"  plantation  "  darky  of  ante-bellum  days  was 
still  abroad  in  the  land.  It  used  him,  his 
pathetic  history,  his  peculiar  attitude  toward 
the  white  man,  for  the  accomplishment  of  its 
purpose.  There  at  the  end  of  the  journey, 
after  the  traveler  had  paid  $2,  $2.50  or  $3  for 
his  berth,  stood  the  porter  with  his  whisk  broom 
and  his  smile. 

And  back  of  him  was  the  pathetic  fact,  in- 
dustriously circulated,  that  "  the  company " 
did  not  pay  him  enough  to  live  on,  so  that  he 
was  dependent  on  the  gratuities  of  passengers 


112  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

who  had  already  paid  full  price  for  accommo- 
dations and  services.  We  were  expected  to 
pay  him  simply  because  the  Pullman  company 
didn't.  And  we  paid  him.  Tens  of  millions 
of  passengers  have  paid  him  millions  of  dol- 
lars. 

It  wasn't  really  philanthropy  to  the  porter; 
it  was  philanthropy  extended  to  the  Pullman 
company,  which  was  glad  to  have  the  fact  of  its 
meanness  in  its  relations  to  its  colored  em- 
ployees —  ill-informed  of  the  rights  of  work- 
ingmen  and  dependent  by  instinct  —  published 
to  the  world. 

It  was  the  Pullman  company  which  fastened 
the  tipping  habit  on  the  American  people  and 
they  used  the  negro  as  the  instrument  to  do  it 
with. 

It  may  be  remarked  in  closing  this  phase  of 
the  discussion  that  an  act  of  Congress  forbid- 
ding tips  on  inter-state  carriers  would  effectu- 
ally reach  the  Pullman  situation. 


XIV 

THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  TIPPING 

IT  has  been  asserted  in  this  discussion  that 
tipping  is  incompatible  with  a  democratic  form 
of  government.  Yet  we  find  officials  of  our 
Government  following  the  custom  and  allowing 
tips  as  a  legitimate  item  of  expense  of  travel- 
ing to  be  paid  out  of  the  public  treasury. 

FREE    AND    EQUAL 

This  state  of  affairs  proves  that  the  work 
of  1776  and  1787  was  limited  practically  to 
one  phase  of  democracy,  namely,  the  political. 
Washington  and  Jefferson  lived  in  a  day  when 
political  equality  was  the  passionate  ideal. 
This  they  and  their  associates  achieved  in  ample 
measure.  They  gave  the  waiter  or  the  barber 
or  the  bootblack  an  equal  voice  in  government 
with  themselves. 

Let    those    Americans    who    think    that    the 

abolition  of  tipping  would  be  too  radical  a  step 
113 


THE  ITCHING  PALM 

toward  social  democracy  consider  how  repulsive 
the  attitude  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  was 
to  the  aristocratic  thought  of  their  day.  No 
matter  what  arguments  the  aristocrats  pre- 
sented against  political  democracy,  their  real  ob- 
jection was  just  this  granting  of  voting  equality 
to  persons  whom  they  rated  as  socially  sub- 
merged. 

But  having  founded  our  government  upon 
political  democracy,  the  straight  line  of  develop- 
ment is  toward  social  and  industrial  democracy, 
in  order  to  complete  the  ideal  entertained  by 
Washington  and  Jefferson.  That  both  of  these 
idealists  tipped  servants  and  that  Washington 
owned  slaves  is  indisputable,  but  they  left  rec- 
ords that  prove  that  they  merely  "  suffered  it  to 
be  so  now."  Washington  clearly  foresaw  the 
trouble  in  which  slavery  would  involve  his  coun- 
try, and  would  have  freed  his  slaves  if  he  could 
have  done  so  without  precipitating  what  to  him 
appeared  a  greater  evil  in  view  of  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  day. 

The  Revolutionary  period  did  all  that  can  be 
asked  of  one  generation  when  political  equality 
was  established.  It  remains  for  our  generation 
to  finish  the  work  of  democracy  by  establishing 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  TIPPING  115 

social  and  industrial  democracy.  The  prospect 
of  a  street  cleaner  or  your  valet  being  your 
social  and  industrial  equal  may  seem  either 
Utopian  or  undesirable,  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, as  stated,  that  two  centuries  ago  the 
thought  of  granting  an  equal  vote  to  such  per- 
sons was  precisely  as  distasteful  to  the  aristo- 
cratic mind. 

EQUALITY    AND    UNIFORMITY 

Much  loose  thinking  along  these  lines  would 
be  obviated  if  every  one  could  learn  clearly  the 
distinction  between  "  equality  "  and  "  uniform- 
ity."  It  is  the  thought  of  uniformity  that 
makes  most  persons  belligerent  toward  demo- 
cratic impulses  in  industry  or  society.  They 
dislike  the  idea  of  a  dead  level  of  compulsory 
uniformity.  A  bootblack  and  a  banker  are 
"  equal  "  in  the  right  to  vote,  but  they  are  not 
"  uniform "  in  function  or  culture.  Social 
democracy  will  abolish  an  aristocratic  custom 
like  tipping  so  that  every  citizen  will  stand  upon 
an  equality  of  self-respect.  It  will  delete  the 
adjective  "  menial "  from  any  form  of  service 
so  that  a  garbage  collector  will  stand  in  as  hon- 
orable a  relation  to  society  as  a  lawyer.  But 


116  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

social  democracy  will  not  and  cannot  make 
naturally  uncongenial  minds  live  in  a  relation 
of  compulsory  fellowship. 

Thus  in  the  United  States  we  have  only  one- 
third  of  a  democracy.  The  other  two-thirds 
—  social  and  industrial  democracy  —  must  be 
attained  before  we  can  consider  our  govern- 
ment as  ideal.  The  tipping  custom  stands 
squarely  in  the  path  of  this  attainment.  The 
slavery  system  is  not  worse  in  competition  with 
free  labor  than  is  the  tipping  system  of  com- 
pensation. In  neither  system  are  values  de- 
termined by  merit  or  production. 

In  the  list  of  the  5,000,000  Americans  with 
itching  palms  were  national  or  city  govern- 
ment employees  like  mail  carriers,  garbage  col- 
lectors and  policemen.  In  the  larger  cities  a 
system  of  giving  gratuities  to  these  and  other 
government  employees  has  grown  up  that  em- 
phasizes the  distance  we  have  to  travel  to  at- 
tain true  democracy. 

Any  one  of  these  three  classes  of  govern- 
ment employees  is  paid  well  for  the  service  he 
renders.  Yet  there  are  mail  carriers  who  will 
lose  a  courteous,  friendly  bearing  toward  those 
who  fail  to  "  remember  "  them  at  Christmas,  or 


THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  TIPPING  117 

at  more  frequent  intervals,  or  who  will  actually 
curtail  the  service  they  are  paid  to  render. 

MISGUIDED    GENEROSITY 

There  seems  to  be  something  about  the  con- 
tinual contact  of  a  person  serving  and  a  per- 
son served  that  makes  the  one  think  the  other 
owes  him  something  on  the  side.  A  mail  car- 
rier will  bring  your  mail  once,  twice  or  several 
times  a  day  for  a  period  and  then  enters  the 
feeling  that  he  is  entitled  to  some  substantial 
token  of  appreciation  of  his  faithful,  cheerful 
service,  other  than  the  compensation  paid  by 
the  government.  Often  the  person  being  served 
feels  a  generous  appreciation  of  good  service 
and  bestows  a  token  of  it  without  the  person 
serving  having  expected  or  wanted  it.  The 
tipping  custom  is  not  wholly  the  outgrowth  of 
greed.  It  is  frequently  misguided  generosity. 
Where  the  error  creeps  in  is  in  expressing  ap- 
preciation in  terms  of  money.  Self-respect  i 
satisfied  with  verbal  appreciation. 

As  an  employer  the  government,  of  all  em- 
ployers, should  set  an  example  of  true  democ- 
racy, should  practice  sound  economics  and 
ethics  in  the  relations  it  permits  between  its 


118  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

employees  and  the  public.  There  is  no  justifi- 
cation from  any  viewpoint  for  giving  gratui- 
ties to  public  servants.  If  garbage  collectors 
render  slipshod  service  to  citizens  who  fail  to 
tip  them  —  and  they  do  this  regularly  —  a  com- 
plaint should  bring  immediate  relief.  It  does 
not  now  because  the  higher  officials  are  under 
the  same  illusion  about  tipping  that  envelopes 
the  subordinates. 

An  inspector  of  street  cleaning  in  Philadel- 
phia was  investigating  a  complaint  against  a 
street  sweeper  in  a  residence  district.  The 
sweeper  told  him  that  he  felt  the  complaint  must 
be  ill-founded  and  that  the  people  in  the  neigh- 
borhood must  be  satisfied  with  his  sweeping,  be- 
cause he  had  recently  received  from  residents 
in  one  block  twenty-one  dollars  in  Christmas 
tips. 

How  many  public  servants  in  your  own  neigh- 
borhood did  you  tip  last  Christmas? 

It  should  not  be  assumed  that  the  indictment 
here  read  is  against  all  mail  carriers  or  garbage 
collectors,  or  policemen.  With  tipping,  as 
with  many  other  abuses  "  there  are  more  than 
seven  thousand  who  have  not  bowed  the  knee  to 
Baal." 


GOVERNMENT  AND  TIPPING     119 

THE    GOLDEN    RULE 

At  Christmas  the  spirit  of  generosity  finds 
many  curious  and  misdirected  expressions. 
Policemen  on  certain  traffic  corners  are  remem- 
bered by  many  gifts  of  money  and  cigars  from 
persons  who  have  no  other  contact  with  them 
than  a  nod  from  a  limousine  as  they  pass  the 
corner  daily.  Why  should  the  feeling  of  ap- 
preciation run  to  thought  of  money  as  a  token 
of  expression?  It  is  because  the  persons  who 
give  entertain  the  idea  that  the  policeman  is 
in  a  stratum  of  society  under  them  and  that, 
being  an  underling,  his  self-respect  will  not  be 
hurt  by  offering  money.  The  same  persons 
would  not  think  of  offering  a  friend  money  and 
would  be  insulted  if  any  one  offered  them  money. 
The  golden  rule  is  a  dead  letter  to  them.  ^/^ 

Some  clubs  have  handled  the  tipping  custom 
by  forbidding  gratuities  during  the  year  and 
then  allowing  the  members  to  contribute  to  a 
fund  to  be  divided  among  the  servitors  at  Christ- 
mas. This  is  a  great  improvement  over  the 
tipping  custom  but  it  is  still  short  of  the  demo- 
cratic ideal.  A  servant  who  is  adequately  paid 
for  his  work  throughout  the  year  has  no  more 


120  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

call  upon  the  generosity  of  patrons  at  Christ- 
mas than  a  clerk  in  a  shoe  store  from  whom  you 
purchase  shoes  four  or  six  times  a  year, 

GOVEBNMENT    HOTELS 

The  Government  operates  hotels  in  the  Canal 
Zone,  and  tipping  is  permitted.  Guests  who 
fail  to  tip  are  treated  by  the  servitors  precisely 
like  they  are  treated  in  private  hotels,  but  the 
writer,  who  boarded  three  months  in  one  of  the 
Government  hotels  in  the  Canal  Zone,  during 
which  time  he  did  not  tip  the  waiter,  found  that 
a  complaint  to  the  manager  about  poor  service 
would  result  in  the  prompt  discipline  of  the  of- 
fending servitor.  This  is  more  than  can  be 
said  of  many  privately  operated  hotels. 

In  this  connection,  it  is  noteworthy  that  the 
only  whisper  of  graft  in  the  building  of  the 
$400,000,000  canal  was  the  charge  made 
against  the  purchasing  agent  of  the  Commis- 
sary that  he  split  commissions  with  the  houses 
from  which  he  purchased  supplies.  Splitting 
commissions  is  the  itching  palm  in  commerce. 

It  would  seem  that  before  passing  laws  to 
regulate  tipping  among  citizens,  the  Govern- 
ment, state  and  national,  should  be  able  to 


GOVERNMENT  AND  TIPPING 

come  into  court  with  clean  hands.  Until  the 
Government  rids  its  service  of  the  spirit  of  graft 
the  law-makers  are  beating  around  the  bush. 


XV 
LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING 

EFFORTS  to  abolish  or  regulate  the  custom 
of  tipping  have  been  made  in  the  Legislatures 
of  practically  all  of  the  States.  Often  after 
passing  legislative  barriers  the  laws  have  fallen 
before  Executive  vetoes,  so  that  scarcely  half  a 
dozen  States  now  have  statutes  on  the  subject. 

The  State  of  Washington  adopted  a  law  pro- 
hibiting tipping,  but  it  was  so  generally  ignored 
that  the  Legislature  of  1913  repealed  it.  This 
shows  that,  at  first  blush,  a  social  custom  of 
long  standing  has  a  stronger  influence  upon  the 
people  than  a  conscientious  conviction  registered 
in  a  new  law. 

Yet,  as  abortive  as  the  legal  campaign  against 
tipping  has  been  thus  far,  the  constant  recur- 
rence of  the  issue  in  the  Legislatures,  and  the 
voluntary  attempts  at  regulation  being  made 
by  hotels  and  other  public  service  enterprises, 

show  that  the  propaganda  is  making  headway 
122 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING       123 

and  that  there  are  great  moral  resources  in 
the  people  ready  to  be  called  into  action. 

CUSTOM    ABOVE   LAW 

The  opposition  to  tipping  is  unorganized, 
undisciplined  and  inarticulate,  while  the  bene- 
ficiaries of  the  custom,  with  a  munificent  tribute 
to  nerve  activity,  are  upon  a  highly  efficient 
basis  of  operation.  Even  with  a  law  at  his 
back  to  stiffen  his  moral  resolution,  the  aver- 
age citizen  feels  more  afraid  of  violating  the 
custom  than  of  violating  the  law.  It  is  be- 
cause of  the  intangible  nature  of  the  custom 
from  his  viewpoint.  A  waiter  can  do  so  many 
things  to  annoy  a  non-tipping  patron  that  the 
patron  cannot  present  in  the  form  of  a  concrete 
complaint,  yet  which  are  quite  real  and  irritat- 
ing. The  upshot  is  that  the  patron  swallows 
his  conscientious  objection  to  the  custom  and 
pays  the  tribute  for  fair  service. 

He  knows  that  a  failure  to  tip  means  a  strug- 
gle three  times  a  day  in  the  dining  room  for  his 
rights  and  the  same  struggle  at  every  point  of 
contact  with  the  itching  palm.  Rather  than 
have  his  efficiency  interfered  with  by  the  mental 
disturbance  such  rows  create,  he  pays  the  price. 


THE  ITCHING  PALM 

But  this  type  of  man  will  make  excellent  ma- 
terial in  the  regular  ranks  even  if  he  lacks  the 
initiative  of  a  lone  hand  against  big  odds. 
When  the  movement  against  tipping  reaches 
the  stage  where  a  spokesman  and  leader  is  pro- 
duced, all  the  latent  opposition  will  spring  into 
effective  cooperation. 

THE    IOWA    LAW 

Some  of  the  laws  are  aimed  exclusively  at  the 
takers  of  tips  and  others  at  the  givers  as  well. 
The  Iowa  law  is  in  the  first  class,  as  follows : 

Sec.  5028-u.  Accepting  or  Soliciting  Gratu- 
ity or  Tip.  Every  employee  of  any  hotel,  res- 
taurant, barber  shop,  or  other  public  place,  and 
every  employee  of  any  person,  firm  partnership, 
or  corporation,,  or  of  any  public  service  cor- 
poration engaged  in  the  transportation  of  pas- 
sengers in  this  state,  who  shall  accept  or  solicit 
any  gratuity,  tip  or  other  thing  of  value  or  of 
valuable  consideration,  from  any  guest  or  pa- 
tron, shall  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  up- 
on conviction  thereof  shall  be  fined  not  less  than 
five  dollars,  or  more  than  twenty-five  dollars,  or 
be  imprisoned  in  the  county  jail  for  a  period 
not  exceeding  thirty  days. 

This  law  makes  the  mere  acceptance  of  a  tip 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING        125 

illegal  and  it  also  heads  off  any  attempt  to 
circumvent  the  law  on  a  technicality  by  pro- 
hibiting the  acceptance  of  "  other  thing  of  value 
or  of  valuable  consideration." 

THE    WISCONSIN    BILL 

The  Wisconsin  bill,  which  the  Governor  ve- 
toed on  the  ground  that  it  curtailed  "  personal 
liberty  "  was  intended  to  penalize  the  giving  of 
the  tip,  and  was  worded  as  follows : 

Sec.  45751.  Every  employee  of  any  hotel, 
restaurant  or  public  place  and  every  employee 
of  any  person,  firm  or  of  any  public  service 
corporation  engaged  in  the  transportation  of 
passengers  or  the  furnishing  of  food,  lodging 
and  other  accommodations  to  the  public  in  this 
state  who  shall  receive  or  solicit  any  gratuity 
or  tip  from  any  guest  or  patron  shall  be  guilty 
of  a  misdemeanor.  Every  person  who  shall 
give  or  offer  any  gratuity  or  tip  to  any  person 
or  employee  prohibited  from  receiving  or  solicit- 
ing the  same  by  the  provisions  of  this  section 
shall  also  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor. 

"  Every  hotel,  restaurant,  firm  and  public 
service  corporation  engaged  in  the  transporta- 
tion of  passengers  or  in  furnishing  food  or 
lodging  or  other  accommodations  to  the  public 
shall  keep  a  copy  of  this  law  posted  in  a  con- 
spicuous place  in  such  hotel  and  restaurant  and 


126  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

in  the  dining  or  sleeping  cars  of  any  firm  or 
public  service  corporation  mentioned  in  this  sec- 
tion. Any  persons  violating  any  of  the  pro- 
visions of  this  section  shall  be  guilty  of  a  mis- 
demeanor and  upon  conviction  shall  be  fined  not 
less  than  five  dollars,  nor  more  than  twenty-five 
dollars,  or  by  imprisonment  in  the  county  jail 
not  to  exceed  thirty  days." 

The  demand  for  this  bill  was  so  strong  among 
the  members  of  the  Legislature  that  it  almost 
was  passed  over  the  Governor's  veto.  The 
provision  that  a  copy  of  the  law  must  be  posted 
in  the  places  where  the  public  comes  into  con- 
tact with  the  itching  palm  is  a  most  essential 
one.  It  reassures  patrons  to  see  it  and  gives 
them  a  present  stimulus  for  standing  upon  their 
right  to  good  service  for  one  payment. 

THE    COURTS    AND    TIPPING 

The  courts,  in  declaring  such  laws  unconsti- 
tutional have  proceeded  upon  the  common  law 
right  of  one  citizen  to  give  away  his  goods  or 
property  in  the  form  of  money  to  any  other 
citizen.  A  tip,  the  judges  say,  represents  a 
gift  within  the  meaning  of  this  common  law 
right.  But  the  instances  of  such  altruism  are 
exceedingly  rare. 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING 

Even  the  judges  who  so  decide  know  that  the 
tips  they  give  are  not  bona  fide  gifts  out  of  the 
goodness  of  a  generous  heart.  Tips  are  given, 
by  the  devotees  of  the  custom,  from  a  sense  of 
obligation.  They  pretend  to  feel  that  the 
servitor  actually  has  rendered  a  service  for 
which  the  tip  is  payment.  The  proof  of  this 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  such  persons  never 
go  about  giving  money  gifts  indiscriminately. 
Their  gifts  are  exclusively  to  the  employees  of 
public  service  enterprises,  showing  that  no  .-/^ 
thought  of  charity  or  generosity  enters  their 
minds. 

The  courts  some  day  will  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  a  gift  of  money  to  any  serving  per- 
son is  a  special  relation  that  is  subject  to  the 
police  power  of  the  State.  The  special  circum- 
stances surrounding  the  gift  will  be  taken  into 
consideration.  Then  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
gift  was  made  for  something  the  patron  did 
not  receive;  for  something  for  which  he  is  re- 
quired to  pay  twice  and  that  the  motives  of  the  . 
gift  were  pride,  or  fear  or  a  sense  of  obligation 
falsely  aroused. 

While  the  courts  are  so  scrupulous  in  pre- 
serving the  common  law  right  to  make  gifts, 


128  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

they  might  give  consideration  to  the  equally  in- 
dubitable right  of  a  patron  to  receive  full  value 
for  his  money,  and  to  receive  such  value  for  one 
payment. 

It  may  be,  that  to  write  an  anti-tipping  law 
that  will  stand  the  test  of  judges  educated  in 
the  old  school  of  thought  about  gratuities,  legis- 
lators will  have  to  approach  the  subject  from 
this  viewpoint  of  preserving  a  patron's  com- 
,  V'  mon  law  right  to  satisfactory  service  for  one 
payment.  For  instance,  a  law  specifically  de- 
fining the  right  of  a  patron  to  have  food  served, 
or  to  use  a  hotel  room  or  sleeping  car  facilities, 
in  short  to  patronize  any  public  service  place, 
with  only  one  charge,  and  that  to  be  paid  ex- 
clusively to  the  proprietor,  might  strike  an  ef- 
fective blow  at  "  the  universal  heart  of  Flunky- 
ism." 

The  courts  will  assert  that  the  foregoing 
right  exists  without  a  special  statute,  and  it 
does.  Still  the  average  citizen  does  not  think 
of  instituting  a  suit  against  a  hotel,  or  swear- 
ing out  a  warrant  against  the  manager  or  an 
employee  to  enforce  his  common  law  right  to 
service  at  one  price.  If  there  is  a  specific 
statute  against  tipping  there  is  a  more  tangible 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING        129 

inducement  to  stand  up  for  one's  rights  and 
there  is  more  likelihood  that  redress  will  be 
granted.  The  defense  of  tipping  on  the  "  per- 
sonal liberty "  plea,  like  the  defense  of  the 
liquor  business  on  the  same  plea,  will  grow 
feebler  and  feebler  until  judges  cease  to  take 
the  aristocratic  viewpoint. 

THE    SOUTH    CAROLINA    LAW 

The  South  Carolina  law  goes  a  step  ahead 
of  either  the  Iowa  law  or  the  Wisconsin  bill  in 
the  provision  that  the  employer  shall  not  per- 
mit the  custom  of  tipping,  in  addition  to  pro- 
visions prohibiting  the  giving  or  receiving  of 
tips  by  patrons  or  employees.  The  law  fol- 
lows: 

"  It  shall  be  unlawful  in  this  State  for  any 
hotel,  restaurant,  cafe,  dining  car  company, 
railroad  companies,  sleeping  car  company  or 
barber  shop  to  knowingly  allow  any  person  in 
its  employ  to  receive  any  gratuity  commonly 
known  as  a  tip,  from  any  patron  or  passenger, 
and  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  patron  of  any 
hotel,  restaurant,  cafe,  dining  car  or  for  any 
passenger  on  any  railroad  train  or  sleeping  car 
to  give  any  employee  any  such  gratuity  and  it 
shall  be  unlawful  for  any  employee  of  any  hotel, 
restaurant,  cafe,  dining  car,  railroad  company, 


130  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

sleeping  car  company  or  barber  shop  to  receive 
any  such  gratuity. 

"  By  '  gratuity  '  or  '  tip  '  as  used  in  this  Act, 
is  to  mean  any  extra  compensation  of  any  kind, 
which  any  hotel,  restaurant,  cafe,  dining  car, 
railroad  company,  sleeping  car  company  or 
barber  shop  manager,  officer  or  any  agent  there- 
of in  charge  of  the  same,  allows  to  be  given  to 
any  employee  and  is  not  a  part  of  the  regular 
charge  of  the  hotel,  restaurant,  cafe,  dining  car, 
railroad  company,  sleeping  car  company  or 
barber  shop,  for  any  part  of  service  rendered, 
or  a  part  of  the  service  which  by  contract  it  is 
under  duty  to  render.  No  company  or  incor- 
poration shall  evade  this  Act  by  adding  to  the 
regular  charge,  directly  or  indirectly,  anything 
intended  for  or  to  be  used  or  to  be  given  away 
as  a  gratuity  or  tip  to  the  employee.  All 
charges  must  be  made  by  the  company  or  pro- 
prietor in  good  faith  as  a  charge  for  the  service 
it  renders,  inclusive  of  the  service  which  it  fur- 
nishes through  employees. 

"  Each  hotel  shall  post  a  copy  of  this  Act  in 
each  room  and  each  restaurant,  cafe  and  barber 
shop  shall  post  at  least  two  copies  of  this  Act 
in  two  conspicuous  places  in  their  places  of 
business,  and  each  railroad  company  shall  post 
two  copies  of  this  Act  in  their  waiting  rooms 
and  passenger  rooms  at  passenger  stations  in 
cities  of  three  thousand  inhabitants  or  more, 
and  each  sleeping  car  and  dining  car  shall  have 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING        131 

posted  therein  at  least  one  copy  of  this  Act. 
"  Any  person  or  corporation  failing  to  post 
as  required  shall  be  fined  not  less  than  ten  dol- 
lars for  such  failure  and  each  day  of  failure 
shall  constitute  a  separate  and  distinct  offense 
and  any  person  violating  any  of  the  other  pro- 
visions of  this  Act  shall  be  subject  to  a  fine  of 
not  less  than  ten  dollars  or  more  than  one  hun- 
dred dollars,  or  be  imprisoned  for  not  exceed- 
ing thirty  days." 

This  South  Carolina  law  was  an  evident  ef- 
fort to  cover  the  custom  of  tipping  in  a  man- 
ner that  would  permit  of  no  evasions.  It  de- 
fines a  "  tip "  and  prohibits  surreptitious 
gratuities  and  makes  employer,  employee  and 
patron  equally  liable  to  prosecution.  Yet,  it 
falls  short  of  an  ideal  law  because  its  operations 
are  limited  to  seven  places  frequented  by  the 
public  and  does  not  cover  private  places  where 
the  itching  palm  flourishes,  such  as  apartment 
houses  and  boarding  houses. 

To  stop  tipping  in  hotels,  restaurants,  cafes, 
dining  cars,  railroad  stations  and  cars,  sleep- 
ing cars  or  barber  shops  will  be  a  long  stride  in 
the  right  direction,  but  the  need  of  stopping 
tipping  to  messenger  boys,  janitors  and  other 
employees  of  apartment  houses,  maids  and 


132  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

waitresses  in  boarding  houses,  garbage  collect- 
ors, mail  carriers  and  policemen  among  govern- 
ment employees,  trunk  transfermen,  guides, 
steamship  employees  and  others  too  numerous 
to  cite,  is  fully  as  urgent. 

THE    IDEAL   LAW 

The  ideal  act  will  be  evolved  through  these 
repeated  approximations  and  through  experi- 
ence. In  a  broad  outline  it  must  include  (1) 
a  clear  definition  of  a  tip,  (£)  a  statement  of 
a  patron's  right  to  service  for  one  payment  ex- 
clusively to  the  proprietor,  (3)  a  prohibition 
against  subterfuges  in  the  charges  whereby  pa- 
trons may  give  tips,  (4)  the  wages  paid  by  an 
employer  to  be  considered  as  presumptive  evi- 
dence of  his  attitude  toward  tipping,  (5)  a  re- 
quirement that  employers  shall  give  patrons  a 
definite  understanding  of  the  service  to  which 
they  are  entitled,  (6)  any  actual  extra  service 
to  be  compensated  for  direct  to  employer  after 
being  appraised  and  charged  for  by  the  em- 
ployer, (7)  the  giving  of  money  or  gifts  to  em- 
ployees to  be  taken  out  of  the  class  of  "  char- 
ity "  and  "  personal  liberty,"  (8)  the  employer, 
the  employee  and  the  patron  to  be  subject  to 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING        133 

the  same  penalty  for  violating  the  law  and  the 
conviction  of  any  one  of  the  three  to  be  fol- 
lowed automatically  by  the  conviction  of  the 
other  two  for  the  same  offense,  (9)  the  law  to 
be  applicable  to  any  employer  and  any  em- 
ployee in  any  relation  with  the  public  or  with 
individuals,  in  private  home  or  public  place, 
(10)  a  prohibition  against  operating  any  con- 
venience for  the  public  in  which  the  rate  of  pay- 
ment shall  be  left  to  the  whim  of  the  patron, 
such  as  cloak  rooms,  the  tariffs  to  be  displayed 
and  exacted  impartially  of  every  patron  if  the 
employer  assumes  that  patrons  must  pay  extra 
for  the  service,  (11)  an  adequate  provision  for 
acquainting  patrons  with  the  law  through  post- 
ing it  or  otherwise  directing  their  attention  to 
it,  (12)  the  granting  of  licenses  to  operate  pub- 
lic service  places  only  upon  condition  that  gra- 
tuities are  not  to  be  permitted,  directly  or  in- 
directly, (13)  the  granting  to  a  patron  who 
has  been  denied  fair  service  of  redress  in  addi- 
tion to  the  punishment  of  the  guilty  employee 
and  employer,  (14)  an  adequate  scale  of  penal- 
ties, fine  or  imprisonment  for  any  violation  of 
any  part  of  the  law. 

It  is  not  presumed  that  if  a  law  were  drawn 


THE  ITCHING  PALM 

to  embody  the  foregoing  provisions  that  the 
tipping  custom  would  be  strangled.  Only  ac- 
tual tests  in  the  courts  will  produce  the  ultimate 
intent.  Of  course,  if  employers  and  employees 
and  patrons  were  actuated  by  a  desire  to  main- 
tain their  relations  upon  a  basis  of  self-respect 
so  circumstantial  a  law  would  be  unnecessary, 
but  many  of  them  are  not  thus  actuated  and  a 
minute  restraint  will  be  imperative  at  the  outset 
and  until  a  normal  ideal  of  democracy  is  cul- 
tivated. 

THE    NEBRASKA    ACT 

The  bill  introduced  in  the  1915  session  of 
the  Nebraska  Legislature  does  not  penalize  the 
patron  for  giving  gratuities  and  seems  to  be 
aimed  at  the  practice  of  "  split  commissions  " 
as  well  as  at  tipping.  It  has  a  maximum  fine 
of  one  hundred  dollars,  or  imprisonment  of 
sixty  days  and  the  employers  only  are  speci- 
fied for  conviction.  The  act  follows : 

"  No  employee  or  servant  shall  accept,  obtain 
or  agree  to  accept,  or  attempt  to  obtain,  from 
any  person,  for  himself  or  for  any  other  per- 
son, any  gift,  gratuity  or  consideration  as  an 
inducement  to  perform  or  as  a  reward  for  hav- 
ing performed  any  duty  or  service  for  which 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING        135 

such  employee  or  servant  has  been  employed  or 
is  to  be  paid  by  the  employer  or  master,  firm  or 
corporation  of  such  employee  or  servant. 

"  No  employer  or  master,  firm  or  corporation 
shall  permit  or  allow  any  of  his  or  their  em- 
ployees or  servants  to  solicit  or  to  accept  any 
gift,  gratuity  or  consideration  as  an  induce- 
ment to  perform  or  as  a  reward  for  having  per- 
formed any  duty  or  service  for  which  such  em- 
ployee or  servant  has  been  or  is  to  be  paid  by 
such  employer  or  master,  firm  or  corporation. 

"  Each  and  every  employer  or  master,  firm 
or  corporation  who  carries  on  business  as  the 
keeper  of  a  hotel,  inn,  restaurant,  cafe,  place 
for  the  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages,  barber  shop 
or  place  for  polishing  boots  and  shoes,  or  who 
operates  a  railroad  dining,  buffet,  sleeping  or 
parlor  car,  shall  post  up  or  cause  to  be  posted 
up  in  at  least  two  conspicuous  places  in  the 
premises  in  which  such  business  is  carried  on,  or 
in  such  car,  a  notice  that  tipping,  or  the  giving 
of  any  gift  or  gratuity  to  any  servant  or  em- 
ployee, is  forbidden  under  penalty  of  fine  or  im- 
prisonment. 

"  No  employer  or  master,  firm  or  corpora- 
tion shall  give  or  agree  to  give  or  offer  to  any 
employee  or  servant  any  gift,  gratuity  or  con- 
sideration as  an  inducement  to  perform  or  as  a 
reward  for  having  performed  any  duty  or  serv- 
ice for  which  such  employer  or  servant  has  been 


136  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

or  is  to  be  paid  by  the  employer,  master,  firm  or 
corporation  employing  such  servants. 

"  Each  and  every  employer,  master,  firm  or 
corporation  who  shall  violate  any  of  the  pro- 
visions herein  made  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a 
misdemeanor  and  upon  conviction  shall  be  liable 
in  each  and  every  case  to  a  fine  of  not  less  than 
ten  dollars  nor  more  than  one  hundred  dollars, 
or  to  imprisonment  in  the  county  jail  of  the 
proper  county  not  less  than  ten  nor  more  than 
sixty  days,  or  to  both  such  fine  and  imprison- 
ment, at  the  discretion  of  the  court." 

THE    TENNESSEE    LAW 

The  Tennessee  law  was  adopted  upon  the  espe- 
cial solicitation  of  the  traveling  salesmen  of  the 
State.  These  men  live  constantly  in  touch  with 
the  itching  palm  and  find  the  tribute  not  only 
burdensome  to  themselves  but  to  their  employ- 
ers. The  act  is  much  like  the  South  Carolina 
law,  and  a  notable  feature  is  Section  6 : 

"  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  circuit 
judges  and  the  courts  of  like  jurisdiction  to 
especially  call  the  attention  of  the  grand  jury 
to  the  provisions  of  this  act  at  each  term  of  the 
court." 

The  foregoing  provision  makes  it  certain  that, 
even  if  patrons  are  timid  about  obeying  the 
law  and  if  employers  and  employees  disregard 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING        137 

it,  the  fight  against  the  custom  will  go  right  on, 
just  as  does  the  fight  against  bootlegging  after 
saloons  have  been  banished  from  a  city.  The 
Tennessee  law  also  has  a  more  elaborate  scale 
of  fines,  as  the  following  section  shows : 

"  Be  it  further  enacted  that  any  hotel,  res- 
taurant, cafe,  barber  shop,  dining  car,  railroad 
or  sleeping  car  company,  and  the  manager,  of- 
ficer or  agent  of  the  same  in  charge,  violating 
this  act  or  wilfully  allowing  the  same  to  be 
violated  in  any  way,  shall  each  be  subject  to  a 
penalty  of  not  less  than  $10  nor  more  than  $50 
for  each  tip  allowed  to  be  given.  If  any  per- 
son shall  give  an  employee  any  gratuity  or  tip 
each  person  shall  be  subject  to  a  fine  of  not 
more  than  $25  and  not  less  than  $5  for  each 
offense.  If  any  of  the  above  employees  shall 
receive  a  gratuity  or  tip  he  or  she  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  a  fine  of  not  more  than  $25  nor  less  than 
$5  for  each  offense.  Should  any  hotel,  restau- 
rant, cafe,  barber  shop,  dining  car,  railroad 
company  or  sleeping  car  company  fail,  neglect 
or  refuse  to  post  notice  of  this  act  as  required 
herein,  such  hotel,  restaurant,  cafe,  barber 
shop,  dining  car,  railroad  or  sleeping  car  com- 
pany shall  be  subject  to  a  fine  not  to  exceed 
$100  for  each  day  it  shall  fail." 

Naturally  if  this  law  is  enforced  with  any 


138  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

fidelity  by  the  grand  juries,  not  to  mention  such 
actions  as  may  be  instituted  by  the  public,  tip- 
ping in  Tennessee  in  the  specified  public  service 
place  will  become  extinct,  or  assume  a  guise  not 
covered  by  the  law.  But  if  tipping  is  restrained 
only  in  the  seven  places  enumerated  and  allowed 
to  be  practiced  unrestrained  everywhere  else, 
only  a  limited  industrial  democracy  will  be  at- 
tained, and  the  part  of  the  custom  left  alive  will 
spread  by  its  own  insidious  processes  to  the 
places  preempted. 

THE    ILLINOIS    COMPEOMISE 

When  the  public  conscience  is  fully  aroused 
to  the  need  of  stifling  this  custom,  the  legal  mind 
will  be  able  to  draw  up  a  law  that  will  prevent 
tipping  anywhere  and  under  any  circumstances. 
The  Illinois  law  is  a  particular  example  of  a 
half-way  measure  in  that  it  seeks  only  to  pro- 
hibit the  practice  of  leasing  tipping  concessions 
to  employees. 

"  That  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  the  owner, 
proprietor,  lessee,  superintendent,  manager  or 
agent  in  any  hotel,  restaurant,  eating  house, 
barber  shop,  theatre,  store  building,  office  build- 
ing, factory,  railroad,  street  railroad,  fair 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING        139 

ground,  baseball  or  football  ground,  hall  used 
for  public  meetings  or  entertainments,  or  any 
other  building,  office,  or  space  which  is  a  place 
of  public  accommodation  or  public  resort,  to 
rent,  lease  or  permit  to  be  used  any  part,  space 
or  portion  thereof,  for  any  trade,  calling  or  oc- 
cupation, or  for  the  exercise  of  any  privilege  by 
any  person,  company,  partnership  or  corpora- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  accepting,  demanding  or 
receiving,  directly  or  indirectly,  from  the  cus- 
tomers, patrons  or  people  who  frequent  such 
places  of  public  accommodation  or  public  re- 
sort, gratuities  or  donations,  commonly  called 
tips,  in  addition  to  the  regular,  ordinary  and 
published  rate  of  charge  for  work  performed, 
materials  furnished  or  services  rendered,  pro- 
vided, that  nothing  in  this  section  contained 
shall  be  construed  to  prohibit  any  employee  or 
servant  from  accepting  or  receiving  gratuities 
or  donations  commonly  called  tips,  if  such  gra- 
tuities or  donations  are  not  accounted  for,  paid 
over,  or  delivered,  directly  or  indirectly,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  to  any  person,  company,  part- 
nership or  corporation,  but  are  retained  by  such 
employee  or  servant,  as  and  for  his  absolute 
and  individual  property. 

"  Any  lease,  contract,  agreement  or  under- 
standing entered  into  in  violation  of  the  pro- 
visions of  section  1  of  this  act  shall  be  abso- 
lutely void. 

"  Any  person,  company,  partnership  or  cor- 


140  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

poration  or  any  officer  or  agent  thereof,  violat- 
ing the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  and  upon  conviction 
shall  be  fined  in  any  sum  not  exceeding  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  for  each  and  every  offense,  and,  in 
addition  thereto  such  person,  officer  or  agent, 
in  the  discretion  of  the  court,  be  sentenced  to 
the  county  jail  not  less  than  three  months  and 
not  more  than  one  year." 

LEGALIZED    ROBBERY 

This  Illinois  law  is  an  instance  of  an  Ameri- 
can Commonwealth  specifically  and  deliberately 
recognizing  tipping  as  legal  and  right.  It  turns 
loose  the  tip-pirates  upon  the  public  with  full 
governmental  sanction,  but  stipulates  that  in 
their  piracy  they  shall  not  organize  into  a  trust, 
as  they  had  done  in  Chicago  and  in  all  large 
cities. 

The  Illinois  law  can  be  commended  to  the 
extent  that  it  seeks  to  break  up  the  organized 
traffic  in  tips,  but  its  recognition  of  tipping  on 
an  unorganized  basis  is  equivalent  to  the  ac- 
tion of  some  European  governments  in  paying 
out  of  their  treasuries  tribute  to  the  Barbary 
pirates  for  the  privilege  of  sailing  the  high  seas. 
Thomas  Jefferson's  democracy  rebelled  at  this 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING 

and  he  freed  the  whole  world  from  the  outrage- 
ous custom. 

IN    MASSACHUSETTS 

Massachusetts  has  a  law  to  prohibit  the  cor- 
rupt influencing  of  agents,  employees  or  serv- 
ants, but  it  is  aimed  specially  at  the  practice  of 
"  splitting  commissions  "  and  does  not  operate 
to  restrain  tipping  in  the  State.  A  salesman 
sometimes  will  offer  to  give  a  buyer  a  bonus  or 
part  of  his  commission  if  an  order  is  placed,  and 
this  practice  is  causing  the  business  world  con- 
siderable thought,  as  employers  realize  that  a 
buyer  who  will  accept  favors  from  salesmen  will 
not  exercise  unbiased  judgment.  It  is  the  itch- 
ing palm  a  plane  above  tipping  owing  to  the 
larger  amount  involved,  and  is  akin  to  the  graft 
of  public  officials.  The  law  follows : 

"  Whoever  corruptly  gives,  offers  or  prom- 
ises to  an  agent,  employee  or  servant  any  gift 
or  gratuity  whatever,  with  intent  to  influence 
his  action  in  relation  to  his  principal's,  em- 
ployer's or  master's  business ;  or  an  agent,  em- 
ployee or  servant  who  corruptly  requests  or  ac- 
cepts a  gift  or  gratuity  or  a  promise  to  make  a 
gift  or  to  do  an  act  beneficial  to  himself  under 
an  agreement  or  with  an  understanding  that  he 


THE  ITCHING  PALM 

shall  act  in  any  particular  manner  in  relation  to 
his  principal's,  employer's  or  master's  business ; 
or  an  agent,  employee  or  servant,  who,  being 
authorized  to  procure  materials,  supplies  or 
other  articles  either  by  purchase  or  contract 
for  his  principal,  employer  or  master,  or  to  em- 
ploy service  or  labor  for  his  principal,  employer 
or  master  receives,  directly  or  indirectly,  for 
himself  or  for  another,  a  commission,  discount 
or  bonus  from  the  person  who  makes  such  sale 
or  contract,  or  furnishes  such  materials,  sup- 
plies or  other  articles,  or  from  a  person  who 
renders  such  service  or  labor;  and  any  person 
who  gives  or  offers  such  an  agent,  employee  or 
servant  such  commission,  discount  or  bonus, 
shall  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  not  less  than  ten 
dollars  nor  more  than  five  hundred  dollars,  or 
by  such  fine  and  by  imprisonment  for  not  more 
than  one  year." 

Although  the  Arkansas  and  Mississippi  laws 
against  tipping  are  not  mentioned,  a  compre- 
hensive idea  of  the  extent  and  nature  of  the 
opposition  to  the  custom  in  the  United  States  is 
presented  in  the  review  of  the  bills  introduced 
in  or  enacted  by  the  Legislatures  of  Iowa,  Wis- 
consin, South  Carolina,  Nebraska,  Tennessee, 
Illinois,  and  Massachusetts.  All  the  other 
States  have  no  laws  against  tipping.  Consider- 


LAWS  AGAINST  TIPPING        143 

ing  the  fact  that  no  organization  has  been 
formed  to  agitate  for  this  reform,  these  spon- 
taneous State  efforts  are  significant. 


XVI 

SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING 

LABOR  has  the  strongest  interest  of  any  ele- 
ment of  citizens  for  seeing  the  5,000,000  men, 
women  and  children  with  itching  palms  elevated 
to  a  normal  plane  of  self-respect.  For  noth- 
ing in  America  more  certainly  promotes  class 
distinctions  than  tipping.  It  is  essentially 
aristocratic,  and  labor  has  attained  its  widest 
development  in  democracy. 

WAITERS    AGAINST    THE    TIP    CUSTOM 

Occasionally  waiters  and  some  other  work- 
ers in  a  serving  capacity  have  attempted  to 
organize  and  place  their  work  upon  the  wage- 
system,  rather  than  the  combination  wage-and- 
tip  system,  or  the  strictly  tip  system,  now  exist- 
ing. In  New  York  in  1913  the  waiters  struck 
for  higher  wages  and  serious  riots  occurred  be- 
fore they  capitulated  to  the  old  system.  The 

hotels  preferred  the  tipping  system  because  it 
144 


SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING    145 

throws  the  cost  of  waiter  hire  upon  the  public, 
whereas,  an  adequate  wage  system  would  neces- 
sitate a  readjustment  of  their  business. 

Even  where  the  waiters  and  barbers  have  or- 
ganized they  have  not  always  shown  aggressive 
efforts  to  abolish  or  regulate  the  tipping  cus- 
tom. The  barbers,  for  instance,  are  highly  or- 
ganized, and  any  real  desire  upon  their  part  to 
abolish  the  custom  would  be  followed  by  imme- 
diate reform.  But  it  is  evident  that  the  tipping 
system  of  compensation  is  attractive  to  many 
persons  who  serve  the  public  because  it  yields 
more  pay  than  a  wage  system.  In  the  higher 
strata  of  workers  particularly  the  tips  are  so 
large  as  to  stupefy  moral  sense,  and  this  minor- 
ity dominates  the  majority  by  setting  a  stand- 
ard of  "  proper  "  social  usage. 

A  :LABOR  LEADER  ON  TIPS 

Mr.  Samuel  Gompers,  president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Federation  of  Labor,  has  opposed  tipping 
as  an  irregular  form  of  compensation,  and  in 
response  to  an  inquiry  for  his  opinion  he  in- 
closed a  letter  he  had  written  to  the  manager  of 
the  Hotel  Stowell,  in  Los  Angeles,  where  a  non- 
tipping  rule  is  enforced. 


146  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

"  Hotel  Stowell, 

Los  Angeles,  Calif. 

"  Replying  to  your  letter  of  November  28th 
I  beg  to  say  that  I  found  your  hotel  and  service 
eminently  satisfactory  and  was  particularly 
pleased  with  the  rule  you  have  enforced  as  to  no 
tipping. 

"  While,  of  course,  I  have  followed  the  usual 
custom  of  giving  tips,  yet  I  have  maintained  the 
principle  of  tipping  to  be  unwise  and  that  it 
tends  to  lessen  the  self-respect  of  a  man  who 
accepts  a  tip. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 
"  (Signed)   SAMUEL,  GOMPERS, 
"  American  Federation  of  Labor." 

This  letter  is  interesting  as  revealing  the  at- 
titude of  many  prominent  Americans,  namely, 
that  while  they  conform  to  the  custom  rather 
than  be  subjected  to  insults,  annoyance  and 
poor  service,  they  really  consider  it  inimical 
to  self-respect. 

EUROPEAN    TIPS 

Mr.  Gompers  in  his  letter  said:  "  You  have 
my  permission  to  quote  my  opinion  upon  this 
subject  in  any  way  that  you  may  desire,"  and 
gave  permission  to  have  reproduced  here  the 
chapter  in  his  book,  "  Labor  In  Europe  and 


SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING    147 

America,"  which  deals  with  tipping  in  Europe, 
as  he  encountered  it  in  his  investigations  of  labor 
conditions.  The  chapter  is  entitled  "  Nuisances 
of  European  Travel  "  and  is  as  follows : 

"  Having  in  previous  letters  given  my  impres- 
sions with  regard  to  matters  of  more  serious  im- 
port, I  wish  to  say  something  about  the  almost 
hourly  sufferings  of  American  travelers  in 
Europe  from  mosquito  bites.  To  the  sharp 
probes  from  these  insects,  with  the  resultant 
pain,  fever  and  disgust,  the  traveler  is  obliged 
to  submit  continually  —  at  hotels  and  restau- 
rants, on  the  railroad  and  often  elsewhere  —  as 
he  goes  seeing  the  sights.  To  illustrate:  our 
party  on  arriving  at  The  Hague  engaged  two 
mosquitoes  in  the  form  of  station  porters  to 
carry  our  hand-baggage  to  the  bus  of  the  Hotel 
Blank,  waiting  at  the  curb  of  the  station  exit. 
The  station  porters  passed  the  valises  over  to 
the  hotel  bus  porter  at  a  point  just  within  the 
station  door.  Nip!  nip!  by  the  two  station 
porters. 

NIP  !     NIP  ! 

"  When  we  arrived  at  the  hotel  door  both  the 
bus  porter  and  the  bus  driver  asked  me  for  what 
they  regarded  as  their  due  drop  of  blood. 
Nip!  nip!  Within  the  door  of  the  hotel  the 
manager  informed  us  that  all  his  rooms  had 


148  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

been  engaged  by  telegraph,  but  that  he  could 
give  us  good  rooms  at  a  clean  hotel  near  by, 
and  we  took  them.  Two  hotel  porters  who  had 
carried  our  bits  of  hand-baggage  into  the  hotel 
lobby  asked  me,  as  soon  as  the  hotel  manager 
had  turned  his  back,  for  their  tribute.  Nip ! 
nip!  Yet  another  porter,  after  taking  the 
things  a  few  steps  down  the  street  to  the  other 
hotel  stood  by  in  the  hallway  and  waited  to  give 
us  his  nip.  Seven  gouges  of  silver  change  out 
of  my  pocket  before  we  reached  our  rooms ! 
But  the  probes  of  the  mosquito  swarms  of  this 
hotel  reached  even  further.  The  little  hotel 
charged  us  Hotel  Blank  rates  for  our  rooms, 
about  double  what  would  have  been  asked  had 
we  gone  there  direct  and  bargained  for  accom- 
modations. And  the  dinner  at  the  Hotel  Blank 
cost  us  half  a  florin  apiece  more  than  the  price 
set  down  in  the  guide-book.  In  this  incident 
the  reader  sees  some,  but  not  all,  of  the  methods 
of  stinging  which  the  hotel  mosquitoes  practice. 
"  In  Berlin,  just  at  the  moment  of  our  de- 
parture, the  porter,  the  gold-laced  and  brass- 
buttoned  dignitary  who  browbeats  lamblike 
guests  at  European  hotel  entrances,  handed  us 
our  laundry  bill,  every  article  of  which  was 
charged  double  to  treble  New  York  prices.  In 
Vienna,  tired  of  blood-letting  to  each  mosquito 
separately  in  the  group  of  servants  always  as- 
sembled about  the  door  upon  our  departure  — 
*  the  review  '  they  themselves  call  this  evolution 


SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING    149 

—  I  drew  the  manager  aside  and  said :  4 1  un- 
derstand that  there  is  a  way  of  giving  tips  to  all 
hands  through  the  management.'  (One  bleed- 
ing as  it  were.)  4  How  much  extra  shall  I  give 
you?'  He  replied:  6  Twenty  per  cent,  of 
your  bill.9 

"  BRIBE    AND    BE    HAPPY  " 

"  I  was  rather  tickled  than  bitten  the  first 
time  I  got  a  nip  in  a  European  railway  train. 
One  of  our  party  suggested  that  as  the  second- 
class  places  were  crowded  we  should  go  into  a 
first-class  compartment  and  await  results. 
When  the  conductor,  in  his  jim-dandy  uniform, 
came  along,  he  was  handed  our  second-class 
tickets  and  a  mark  —  a  silver  coin  worth  a 
paltry  twenty-five  cents.  And  he  took  our 
tickets  and  passed  on  without  seeing  for  what 
class  they  called.  The  vast  possibilities  of 
cheaply  purchased  privileges  on  future  trips 
acted  as  a  palliative  to  this  little  sting.  And 
the  thought  of  what  might  happen  if  the  traveler 
in  America  should  try  to  overcome  the  virtue 
of  one  of  our  express-train  conductors  with  a 
*  quarter '  brought  all  our  party  to  see  the  cir- 
cumstance from  a  humorous  point  of  view. 
Truth  to  relate,  it  marked  the  beginning  of  a 
custom  we  followed  —  since  we  learned  that  it 
was  general  —  of  buying  our  way  past  any 
obstacle  that  appeared  to  interrupt  the  smooth- 
ness or  comfort  of  our  daily  progress.  With  a 


150  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

little  silver  we  henceforth  obtained  concessions 
from  grand-looking  policemen,  soldiers  on 
guard,  vergers  in  churches,  museum  custodians. 
It  is  a  common  custom  for  conductors  on  street 
cars  in  Continental  Europe  to  hold  out  their 
hands  to  receive  as  a  tip  any  small  change  due, 
but  first  handed  over  to  the  passenger.  You 
may  have  your  choice  in  European  travel: 
Bribe  and  be  otherwise  happy  and  free,  or 
virtuously  decline  to  bribe  and  be  snubbed,  or- 
dered about  and  forbidden  to  see  things. 

BORDERS    ON    BLACKMAIL 

"  The  tipping  system,  bad  as  it  is  becoming  in 
America,  is  in  Europe  universal  and  accepted  by 
all  classes  of  travelers  as  an  inevitable  nuisance. 
It  often  borders  on  blackmail.  Tippers  go  rav- 
ing mad  in  recounting  their  wrongs  under  the 
tyrannies  of  the  system,  the  newspapers  by  turn 
rail  or  make  merry  over  it,  the  hotel  keepers  and 
other  employers  of  the  class  have  their  excuse 
that  they  pay  wages  to  their  servants  —  but  the 
tipping  goes  on  forever.  Why  is  it?  Who  is 
to  blame? 

"  These  questions  I  have  asked  representative 
waiters  —  for  representatives  these  men  have, 
many  of  them  being  organized  into  benefit  socie- 
ties and  a  small  proportion  in  a  sort  of  trade 
union.  But  one  answer  was  given.  The  system 
is  detestable  to  every  man  and  woman  of  the 
serving  class  possessing  the  least  degree  of  self- 


SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING    151 

respect.  It  is  demoralizing  to  all  who  either 
give  or  receive  tips.  The  real  beneficiaries  of 
the  system  are  the  employers.  An  end  to  it, 
with  a  fair  standard  of  wages,  would  be  a  boon 
of  the  first  order  to  employees,  a  means  of  com- 
pelling hotel  proprietors  to  put  their  business 
on  a  basis  of  fair  dealing,  and  an  incalculable 
aid  to  the  tranquillity  and  pleasure  of  the  gen- 
eral public. 

MORAL    PIRATES 

"  I  have  often  talked  over  the  system  of 
tipping  with  my  fellow  waiters,"  said  an  edu- 
cated man  of  the  calling,  when  I  brought  up  the 
subject  to  him.  (Parenthetically,  perhaps,  I 
should  say  here  that  since  this  man  speaks 
fluently  and  writes  correctly  four  languages, 
has  traveled  much  and  observed  well  on  the 
great  tourist  routes  of  the  world,  has  studied 
some  of  the  serious  works  of  writers  on  sociol- 
ogy, and  has,  withal,  acquired  agreeable  man- 
ners, he  may  be  called  educated.  Without 
doubt,  had  he  a  few  thousands  of  vulgar  dollars 
he  might  buy  himself  a  title  as  Baron  and  marry 
in  our  best  society ;  but  he  is  above  that ;  he  has 
a  craving  for  walking  in  the  light  of  truth.) 
"  All  of  us  would  like  to  see  the  system  abol- 
ished," he  assured  me,  "  except  a  small  minority 
who  in  their  moral  make-up  resemble  pirates, 
and  who  cruise  in  places  where  riches  abound. 


152  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

But  the  whole  situation  is  one  in  which  reform 
is  most  difficult. 

"  Among  the  people  who  patronize  hotels  and 
restaurants  there  is  a  considerable  element  that, 
either  for  a  week  of  frolic  or  during  their  life- 
long holiday,  are  regardless  of  the  value  of  their 
tips,  and  through  their  vanity  enjoy  throwing 
away  a  percentage  of  their  ready  money. 
Then,  also,  are  those  grateful  for  the  little 
kindly  attentions  which  a  good  waiter  or  porter 
knows  how  to  bestow.  As  for  the  proprietors 
and  managers,  their  business  is  based  on  tips  as 
one  of  the  considerable  forms  of  revenue.  For 
instance,  in  many  German  hotels  the  waiters 
are  obliged  to  give  the  cashier  five  or  more  marks 
additional  on  every  hundred  marks  of  checks. 
In  Austria,  at  the  larger  restaurants  the  cus- 
tomers tip  three  persons  after  a  meal  —  the 
head-waiter  who  collects  the  payments,  the 
waiter  who  serves  and  the  piccolo  or  beer-boy. 
The  hotel  management  sells  to  the  head-waiter 
the  monopoly  privilege  of  the  tips.  The  head- 
waiter  then  provides  the  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines on  file,  the  city  directories,  time-tables  and 
other  books  of  reference  called  for  by  patrons, 
and  a  part  of  the  outfit  of  the  waiters.  Of 
course,  it  is  an  old  and  true  story,  that  in  the 
big  restaurants  of  Paris,  and  to-day  of  other 
cities  and  fashionable  watering-places,  the  wait- 
ers pay  so  much  cash  a  day  for  their  jobs.  The 
pestering  of  guests  to  buy  drinks  comes,  not  so 


SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING    153 

much  from  commissions,  as  from  orders  of  the 
management  that  the  custom  of  drinking  at 
meals  must  be  encouraged.  In  Germany  it  is 
usual  at  the  larger  restaurants  to  add  half  a 
mark  to  the  cost  of  a  meal  if  the  guest  drinks 
plain  water  only. 

TOO    MANY    SERVANTS 

"  European  hotels  generally  take  on  more 
servants  than  are  necessary.  It  makes  a  show- 
ing of  being  prepared  for  big  business.  Then 
the  servants  must  redouble  their  artful  moves 
to  extort  tips.  Porters  not  infrequently  work 
without  salary  at  all.  Chambermaids,  who  are 
paid  by  the  month,  receive  absurdly  low  pay. 
Financing  a  hotel  or  restaurant  is  based  on  the 
tips  as  a  margin  yielding  on  the  average  a  fixed 
amount.  To  make  them  reach  the  required 
sum  all  the  employees  are  obliged  to  maneuver 
so  as  to  put  up  a  showing  of  earning  the 
traveler's  extra  silver  pieces.  Coppers  rarely 
are  expected  as  tips  now.  It  has  become  com- 
mon for  railway  station  porters  to  demand  half 
a  franc  for  what  once  brought  them  a  few  sous 
or  pfennigs. 

"  One  outcome  of  running  a  hotel  on  the 
tipping  system  developed  to  the  point  of  bam- 
boozling or  worrying  the  guests  out  of  petty 
extras  at  every  turn  is  that  each  year  there  is 
an  emigration  of  European  waiters  to  America 
to  get  places  in  hotels  taken  by  European  man- 


154  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

agers,  who,  depending  upon  their  servants  to 
work  the  system  at  its  worst  for  the  guests,  can 
make  a  business  pay  both  manager  and  land- 
lord, where  an  American  manager,  paying 
wages,  would  fail.  While  shop-keepers  have  in 
the  course  of  time  been  forced  to  adopt  the  one- 
price  system,  the  drift  in  the  hotel  business  has 
been  continuously  away  from  the  per  diem  rate. 
Another  point  —  the  big  tourist  agencies  for 
European  travel  are  certainly  in  some  sort  of 
partnership  with  the  hotels  for  which  they  sell 
coupon  tickets.  Those  on  the  inside  of  the 
hotel  business  in  Europe  know  that  these  hotels 
are  patronized  largely  by  Americans,  spend- 
thrifts on  their  trip  staying  a  few  days  at  a  time 
and  usually  speaking  English  only,  and  there- 
fore disinclined  to  hunt  up  stopping-places  for 
themselves.  Hence  at  such  hotels  there  is  a 
harvest  for  everybody  —  a  situation  which 
•eventually  leads  to  bad  food,  bad  cooking,  bad 
service,  and  a  hold-up  at  every  turn  of  the 
guest." 

A    SORRY    BUSINESS 

In  going  over  the  possible  method  of  a  change 
for  the  better  in  this  sorry  business,  my  waiter 
friend  said  that  first  of  all  he  believed  that  a  big 
trade  union  must  be  formed  of  hotel  help. 
Tipping  must  give  way  to  fair  wages.  The 
public  could  give  its  share  of  assistance.  He 
recommended  that  the  guests  at  either  hotels  or 


SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING    155 

restaurants  should  follow  these  rules,  notes  of 
which  were  taken  on  the  spot.  "  Patronize, 
whenever  possible,  the  hotels  and  eating  houses 
where  tips  are  forbidden ;  there  are  such  places 
in  England  and  on  the  continent.  Refuse  im- 
portunities for  tips,  either  through  words  or 
6  hanging  around,'  where  there  has  been  no  ser- 
vice. Where,  for  your  own  comfort  you  feel 
constrained  to  tip  give  the  bare  minimum. 
Whenever  possible  do  not  tip  at  all." 

He  added,  and  I  felt  that  he  had  me  also  in 
mind,  "  Some  easy-going  natured  people  believe 
that  they  tip  the  nearest  itching  palm  to  them 
because  of  their  sympathy  with  the  poor.  Re- 
flection should  teach  them  that  there  can  some- 
times be  real  charity  without  public  demonstra- 
tion." 

True,  church  people  might,  with  this  pur- 
pose, give  through  their  own  congregational 
agencies.  In  London,  the  American  traveler 
wishing  to  do  the  best  with  his  withheld  tip- 
appropriation,  might  send  it  to  the  Westminster 
Children's  Aid  Society ;  In  Rome,  to  the  Society 
for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals;  In 
Berlin,  to  the  semi-public  lodging  houses. 
Everywhere,  trade-unionists  can  always  give 
first  to  the  genuine  and  pressing  claims  of  their 
own  organizations.  But,  of  course,  if  the  tip- 
per, gives,  not  from  motives  of  good-hearted- 
ness,  but  mere  vanity,  all  advice  is  thrown  away 
on  him.  The  hotel  keeper  will  continue  growing 


156  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

rich  on  him  and  despising  him.  Other  folks  in 
Europe  may  have  good  reason  to  tell  him,  what 
a  plain  spoken  Swiss  citizen  told  a  friend  of 
mine :  "  You  Americans  with  your  dirty  dol- 
lars are  ruining  my  country." 

VANITY,    ALL    IS    VANITY! 

Mr.  Gompers  in  this  chapter  from  his  book 
has  shed  much  light  on  the  ethics,  economics  and 
psychology  of  tipping.  The  deliberate,  shame- 
less exploitation  of  the  public  by  employers  and 
employees  is  revealed.  No  ground  to  stand 
upon  is  left  to  the  tip  givers  except  vanity,  and 
the  pernicious  influence  of  the  custom,  to  pa- 
tron, employee  and  employer,  is  so  unmistakable 
that  the  doom  of  the  custom  is  as  certain  as 
was  slavery,  when  the  American  conscience  once 
squarely  faces  the  issue. 

Hotel  and  restaurant  managers  in  our  cities 
have  employed  European  waiters  upon  the 
theory  that  the  native  American  has  too  much 
independence  and  self-respect.  The  European 
waiters  have  multiplied  the  tip-giving  propen- 
sity in  America  and  have  established  their  un- 
democratic sovereignty  over  our  public  hospital- 
ity. Inasmuch  as  a  certain  element  of  Ameri- 
cans think  that  the  last  word  in  social  pro- 


SAMUEL  GOMPERS  ON  TIPPING    157 

priety  originates  in  Europe,  when  these  Eu- 
ropean servitors  are  transplanted,  gold  lace  and 
all,  to  America,  they  hasten  to  enlarge  their 
tips  to  the  point  which  they  assume  these  servi- 
tors consider  "  proper." 

The  astonishing  feature  of  the  European  sit- 
uation is  that  the  European  patrons  of  hotels 
do  not  themselves  tip  within  a  tenth  of  the 
largess  bestowed  by  American  tourists.  The 
American  tourist  is  fair  game  to  the  European 
hotel,  which  trebles  its  regular  rates  the  mo- 
ment he  appears.  A  native  of  the  country, 
however,  can  have  identically  the  same  accom- 
modations for  one-third  of  the  American's  bill, 
and  his  tips  are  a  bagatelle  in  comparison. 

The  situation  may  be  changed  by  an  organ- 
ization of  employees,  but  reform  will  come  most 
speedily  whenever  the  public,  which  pays  the 
bill,  decides  to  withhold  the  tribute. 


XVII 
THE  WAY  OUT 

SUMMAKIZING  the  case  against  tipping,  the 
following  facts  stand  out  prominently : 

1.  Flunk jism   is   rampant   in   the   American 
democracy  and  this  aristocratic  influence  is  un- 
dermining republican  ideals  and  institutions. 

2.  Flunkyism,  in  the  form  of  tipping,  is  kept 
alive  by  the  courts  on  the  plea  of  "  personal 
liberty." 

3.  Tipping  nowadays  is  of  precisely  the  same 
morality    as    paying   tribute    to    the    Barbary 
Pirates    was    in    Jefferson's    day,    which    the 
American  conscience  finally  abolished. 

4.  On  the  economic  side,  tipping  is  wrong  be- 
cause it  is  payment  for  no  service,  or  double 
payment  for  one  service;  thereby  causing  the 

,  /exchange  of  wealth  without  a  mutual  gain. 

5.  Tipping  is   ethically   wrong  because   one 
person  accepts  payment  for  a  service  not  ren- 
dered,   or    for   a    service   which    the   employer 
already  has  paid  to  have  performed.     And  be- 
cause gratuities  destroy  self-respect. 

6.  The  hold  which  tipping  has  upon  the  pub- 


THE  WAY  OUT  159 

lie  is  due  to  unscrupulous  appeals  to  generosity, 
pride  and  fear  of  violating  conventional  social 
usage. 

7.  The     public     is     exploited     deliberately 
through  books  on  social  propriety  which  empha- 
size  the   custom,   or  which   advise   conformity 
thereto  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  comfort. 

8.  The  exploitation  of  the  public  is  aided  by 
the  visualization  of  the  custom  in  moving  pic- 
tures and  on  the  stage  where  it  is  treated  hu- 
morously. 

9.  Employees  defend  tipping  upon  the  ground 
that  it  compensates  them  for  extra  services  not 
covered  in  their  wages.     An  examination  of  in- 
dividual instances  shows  this  contention  to  be 
false  in  a  vast  majority  of  the  number  examined. 

10.  Employers    defend    the    custom    on    the 
ground    that    the    public    insists    upon    giving 
gratuities  and  they  must  face  competition  based 
upon  that  condition.     But  it  is  shown  that  em- 
ployers openly  profit  by  the  custom  and  secretly 
encourage  it. 

11.  One  metropolitan  hotel  has  blazed  the 
way  to  reform  by  guaranteeing  that  its  guests 
will  not  be  annoyed  or  neglected  if  tips  are  not 
given.     This  partial  step  toward  the  abolition 
of  the  custom  is  possible  everywhere  if  employ- 
ers are  sincere  in  their  profession  of  antipathy 
for  the  custom. 

12.  Our  democratic  government  permits  its 
officers    and    employees    to    accept    gratuities, 


160  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

thereby  stultifying  the  spirit  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  the  Constitution. 

13.  The  conscience  of  the  people  as  reflected 
in  the  laws  adopted  or  offered  against  tipping 
is  sound  and  needs  only  to  be  led  to  an  adequate 
expression.     There  are  abundant  indications  of 
a  widespread  distaste  for  the  custom  but  the 
sentiment  is  unorganized  and  inarticulate. 

14.  The  head  of  the  labor  movement  in  Amer- 
ica declares  that  tipping  is  undesirable  as  a  sys- 
tem of  compensation  for  employees  and  destroys 
the  self-respect  of  those  who  give  or  receive  the 
gratuities. 

15.  A  national  organization  of  those  inter- 
ested in  this  reform  should  be  brought  into  being 
with  effective  state  auxiliaries. 

BETTER  ORGANIZATION  NEEDED 

The  last  proposition  constitutes  "  the  way 
out "  of  the  present  undesirable  situation. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  the  anti-tipping 
propaganda  heretofore  has  lacked  organization 
and  direction  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  laws 
adopted  against  the  custom  and  the  spasmodic 
public  irritation  over  it  have  fizzled  out.  With 
the  same  organization  behind  this  movement 
that  has  been  given  to  the  anti-saloon  move- 
ment, or  the  suffrage  movement,  tipping  would 
be  vanquished  in  an  astonishingly  short  time. 


THE  WAY  OUT  161 

There  is  no  doubt  there  is  sufficient  latent  op- 
position to  tipping  to  form  the  basis  of  an  anti- 
tipping  organization.  It  may  be  called  "  The 
American  Anti-Tipping  Association,"  01  by  any 
other  name,  and  it  should  embrace  in  its  mem- 
bership not  only  those  who  are  opposed  to  giv- 
ing tips,  but  those  servants  and  workers  who 
are  opposed  to  receiving  tips,  and  also  all  other 
persons  of  any  race  or  creed  whose  conception 
of  true  Americanism  does  not  include  approval 
of  this  custom. 

NOT   A   WAR   AGAINST    PEKSONS 

The  object  of  such  an  organization  should 
not  be  to  wage  war  on  persons,  but  on  a  cus- 
tom. There  is  no  need  for  hostility  against 
waiters,  barberr  porters  and  the  like  as  a  class. 
Many  of  these  heartily  oppose  the  custom  and 
will  j  oin  in  a  movement  to  eradicate  it.  Hence, 
the  campaign  should  be  to  readjust  the  basis 
of  compensation  of  those  who  serve  the  public 
so  that  self-respect  may  be  preserved  all  around. 
Nothing  less  than  a  fair  wage  as  a  substitute!  / 
for  the  present  tipping  system  of  compensa- 
tion would  be  considered. 

Having  made  the  foregoing  point  clear  at 


162  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

the  outset,  much  resentment  among  servitors 
would  be  eliminated.  No  one  has  a  desire  to 
deprive  a  waiter  of  an  adequate  compensation, 
but  no  one  has  a  desire  to  give  him  an  excessive 
compensation  through  gratuities,  or  a  compen- 
sation which  depresses  his  self-respect  in  the 
manner  of  receiving  and  humiliates  the  patron 
in  the  manner  of  giving. 

Employers  would  need  to  be  informed,  too, 
that  the  campaign  against  tipping  is  not  to 
throw  an  unjust  burden  of  operating  expense 
upon  them.  It  will  indeed  deprive  them  of  any 
revenues  which  they  should  not,  economically 
or  ethically,  receive  from  the  public  through 
gratuities  to  employees.  The  substitution  of 
a  wage  scale  will  be  attended  by  economic 
changes  which  at  first  may  cause  some  unsettled 
conditions,  but  this  is  inevitable  when  an  un- 
sound practice  has  been  allowed  to  grow  un- 
restrained in  the  business  world. 

PUBLIC  OPINION 

One  of  the  first  aims  of  such  an  organization 
would  be  to  bring  public  opinion  to  bear  upon 
city,  state  and  national  governments  to  in- 


THE  WAY  OUT  163 

spire  them  to  clean  house  in  regard  to  tipping. 
No  government  employee  should  be  permitted 
to  accept  any  compensation  other  than  his 
salary  or  wages  from  the  government.  Mail 
carriers,  policemen,  garbage  collectors,  guides 
and  other  government  employees  are  paid  ade- 
quately and  gratuities  to  them  from  the  public 
are  indefensible,  in  any  country,  and  supremely 
so  in  the  American  democracy. 

The  public,  of  course,  will  need  to  revise  its 
attitude  toward  these  and  all  persons  who  serve 
them.  The  feeling  that  a  traffic  policeman 
whom  you  pass  in  your  automobile  every  day 
should  be  remembered  with  a  gift  of  money  or 
anything  else  substantial  at  Christmas,  or  upon 
any  other  occasion  is  false  sentiment.  He  is 
due  nothing  except  courtesy  all  the  time  from 
the  public,  which,  through  taxes,  already  has 
provided  his  compensation.  The  feeling  that- 
a  mail  carrier  whom  you  see  daily,  or  a  garbage 
collector,  must  be  similarly  remembered  is 
equally  false  sentiment.  The  ideal  is  a  rela- 
tion in  which  patron  and  employee,  public  and 
government  employee,  entertain  mutual  opin- 
ions of  self-respect,  and  regardless  of  how  dis- 


164  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

tasteful  this  may  be  to  class  sense,  or  aristo- 
cratic impulses,  it  is  the  American  standard  and 
the  right  standard. 

PROMOTING    LEGISLATION 

An  organization  opposed  to  tipping  would 
have  as  its  further  objects  the  promotion  of 
legislation  against  the  custom  and  the  protec- 
tion of  the  public  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  rights 
at  law.  If  so  many  States  have  adopted  laws 
as  a  spontaneous  expression  of  Americanism, 
it  may  be  assumed  that  with  organized  public 
sentiment,  and  educated  public  sentiment  all  the 
States  will  get  in  line.  There  will  be  abundant 
financial  resources  behind  such  an  organization. 
Those  who  oppose  tipping  have  been  silent  but 
they  have  felt  keenly  and  will  contribute  liber- 
ally toward  the  advancement  of  the  cause. 
And  when  such  an  organization  actually  proves 
its  efficacy  in  protecting  the  public,  its  ranks 
will  be  augmented  overwhelmingly. 

The  protection  hinted  at  is  the  kind  that 
would  take  up  specific  instances  of  neglect  of 
patrons  who  do  not  give  tips.  Thus,  if  a  mem- 
ber should  be  neglected  or  insulted  in  a  hotel 
after  he  had  failed  to  bestow  a  gratuity,  the 


THE  WAY  OUT  165 

organization,  upon  investigation,  would  assume 
the  task  of  correcting  the  situation  at  law. 
Even  where  there  is  no  statute  against  tipping, 
the  common  law  guarantees  the  right  of  a  pa- 
tron to  fair  and  equal  service,  and  the  organiza- 
tion could  enforce  this  right  in  the  courts. 

Naturally,  great  care  and  good  judgment 
would  be  needed  to  prevent  an  injustice  to  pro- 
prietors and  employees.  Often  patrons  exact 
more  service  than  they  are  entitled  to,  and  in 
such  a  situation  the  organization  would  be 
ranged  on  the  side  of  the  employee.  Those 
who  desire  a  condition  where  they  may  run 
rough-shod  over  servitors  have  a  mistaken  idea 
of  the  anti-tipping  ideal.  The  employer  is  re- 
quired to  have  employees  who  will  give  cheer- 
ful, adequate  service,  but  within  the  limits  of 
reason,  and  the  selfish,  domineering,  patron  is 
an  evil  which  must  be  restrained  as  effectually 
as  the  waiter  who  surreptitiously  insults  pa- 
trons who  do  not  tip. 

TO    PEEVENT    COMPLAINT 

Surveying  the  vast  field  of  tipping  one  may 
wonder  how  any  organization  could  offer  pro- 
tection to  the  numberless  patrons  who  might 


166  THE  ITCHING  PALM 

complain.  The  answer  is  that  the  organization 
would  be  as  widespread  as  the  custom.  Every 
town  and  city  would  have  its  local  organization 
with  an  attorney  to  prosecute  violations.  But 
it  is  reasonable  to  presume  that  when  public 
opinion  is  once  thoroughly  aroused  and  organ- 
ized, and  a  few  prosecutions  have  been  success- 
ful, that  employers  and  employees,  who  do  not 
voluntarily  reform  their  practices,  will  see  the 
light. 

As  deep-rooted  as  the  custom  seems,  it  really 
rests  on  insecure  foundations  and  will  crumble 
before  any  real  attack.  The  average  American, 
be  he  barber,  waiter  or  porter,  has  enough  in- 
herent understanding  of  democracy  to  know 
that  the  custom  is  wrong.  He  "  will  get  his  " 
as  long  as  an  easy-going  public  will  stand  for 
the  exaction,  but  will  not  be  a  formidable  oppo- 
nent. The  imported  European  waiter  will  pre- 
sent more  obstinate  fondness  for  the  custom, 
having  been  nurtured  in  the  aristocratic  school, 
but  his  opposition  can  be  handled. 

The  most  difficult  type  will  be  the  class  of 
patrons  who  delight  in  playing  the  role  of  Lady 
Bountiful  or  Gentleman  Generous.  Their 
pride  will  be  restrained  from  buying  servility 


THE  WAY  OUT  167 

from  other  Americans.  And  wealthy  proprie- 
tors, who  cater  to  this  class  and  the  interme- 
diate class  which  ape  the  "  smart  set,"  will  cling 
to  the  custom  because  of  their  pecuniary  inter- 
est therein.  But  the  average  American  and 
his  vigorous  sense  of  democracy  will  be  adequate 
to  the  task  of  controlling  all  elements  adverse 
to  the  republic. 

The  campaign  against  tipping  is  much  more 
than  a  purpose  to  save  the  money  given  in  gra- 
tuities. Its  idealism  aims  to  reach  the  very 
pinnacle  of  republican  society  —  the  destiny 
toward  which  1776  started  us.  The  mountain 
peaks  of  pride  will  have  to  be  pulled  down  and 
the  valleys  of  false  humility  will  have  to  be 
lifted  up,  while  the  impulses  to  greed  and  avarice 
will  have  to  be  rebuked  until  every  American  can 
say: 

If  I  must  build  my  pride  upon  another  man's 

humility, 

I  will  not  be  proud; 
If  I  must  build  my  strength  upon  another  man's 

weakness, 

I  will  not  be  strong; 
If  I  must  build  my  success  upon  another  man's 

failure, 
I  will  not  succeed ! 


INDEX 

ARGUMENTS  for  Tipping 26,  28 

BAGGAGEMEN    76 

BARBARY  PIRATES,  The 15 

BARBER,  The 29 

BARBER-SHOP  PORTERS 79 

BATH  ATTENDANTS 86 

BELL-BOYS 32,  69,  104 

BETTER  ORGANIZATION  NEEDED   160 

BIBLE,  The,  Against  Tipping 45 

BLACKMAIL 150 

BOOTBLACKS     66,  78 

CASTE  AND  CLASS 47 

CHAMBERMAIDS 153 

CHAUFFEURS 33 

CHRISTMAS  TIPS    116,  119 

CLOAKROOM  TACTICS   52 

CLUBS 119 

COMMISSIONS,  SPLITTING   43 

COURTS,  The,  and  tipping 126 

CUSTOM  ABOVE  LAW 123 

DEMOCRACY  AND  TIPPING  . .   38,  48,  114,  166 
DOOR  MEN  ? 81 

169 


170  INDEX 

ECONOMICS  OF  TIPPING 26,  28 

ELEVATOR  MEN    61,  81 

EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT,  The   73 

EMPLOYEE  VIEWPOINT,  The   88 

EMPLOYERS,  can  control 102 

conspiracy  by 90 

"            retain  tips     86,  90,  152 

"            three  kinds  of 88 

"            who  profit  by  tips  .....    89,  105 

EQUALITY  AND  UNIFORMITY 115 

ETIQUETTE  BOOKS  foster  tipping 58 

EUROPEAN  TIPS 146 

train  conductors 149 

FEAR,  as  a  reason  for  tipping 55 

FLUNKYISM  IN  AMERICA   7 

FREE  AND  EQUAL 113 

GARBAGE  COLLECTORS  116,  118 

GENEROSITY,  as  a  reason  for  tipping  ....  51 

"  misguided  117 

GENTLEMAN,  what  is  a?  37 

"  would  he  accept  tips? 37 

GOLDEN  RULE,  THE  119 

GOMPERS,  SAMUEL,  on  tipping  144 

GOVERNMENT  HOTELS,  tipping  in  ......  120 

"  "  the,  and  tipping.  .  113 

GOVERNOR  WHITMAN  against  tips 40 

GRAFT,  "  honest  "  45 

"  taught  by  tipping  . 42 

GUEST'S  RIGHT,  The 104 


INDEX  171 

GUIDES    81 

HARRY  LAUDER  against  tipping 41 

HATBOYS     82 

"  HONEST  GRAFT  "    45 

HOSPITALITY,   false    101 

HOTEL,  The 30 

fees    59 

hospitality 62,  101 

theory  and  practice 32 

tipless    97,  146 

HOUSE  SERVANTS 64 

HUSH  MONEY    42 

IDEAL  LAW,  The   132 

ILLINOIS  LAW,  The    91 

"         Compromise,  The     138 

IOWA  LAW,   The 124 

ITCHING  PALM,  The  .,.   8,  10,  19,  31,  70,  72 

JANITORS      ....  83 


LADY,  What  is  a? 37 

"       would  she  accept  tips 37 

LAWS  Against  Tipping 122 

LEGALIZED  ROBBERY    140 

LEGISLATION,  Promoting 164 

LITERATURE  of  Tipping,  The 58 

MAIL  CARRIERS 116 

MANICURISTS       84 


172  INDEX 

MASSACHUSETTS,  In   ........  ..........  141 

MERCHANTS  against  tips  ..............  44 

MESSENGERS    ........................  85 

"  MILLIONS  FOR  DEFENSE  "   ...........  17 

MORAL  PIRATES   .....................  151 

"  MOVIES,"  the,  and  tipping  ...........  69 

MUSICIANS  ...................  .......  66 

NEBRASKA  ACT,  The   .................    134 

NOT  A  WAR  Against  Persons   ..........    161 

"  No  TIP  "  POLICY,  barber  shops  .......      89 

"       "         "          hotels    .....   89,  97,  147 

"       "         "          restaurants     .......      89 

OCEAN  VOYAGES,  tipping  on  ...........      65 

ONE  COMPENSATION,  One  Service   ....    35,  55 

ORGANIZATION  NEEDED   ...............    160 

PERSONAL  LIBERTY  ................    10,  13 

PERSONNEL  AND  DISTRIBUTION  .........      19 

POLICEMEN    ......  ..............    116,  119 

PORTERS  ......................  147,  153 

"         Pullman    ...................    108 

PRICE  OF  PRIDE,  The   ................      37 

PRIDE,  as  a  reason  for  tipping  ........      54 

PRIVATE  HOUSES,  tipping  in    ..........      64 

PSYCHOLOGY  OF  TIPPING,  The   .........      47 

PULLMAN  COMPANY,  The  ..............  105 

"  "  investigated    .......    106 

PUBLIC  OPINION  ..................... 


REASONS  for  tipping    ..........   51,  54,  55 


INDEX  173 

RECIPIENTS  opposed  to  Tipping  39,  144,  150 
REMEDY  for  Tipping  . .  55,  94,  95,  108,  158 
RICH  AMERICAN  MYTH,  The 67 

SHIP'S  DOCTOR,  The   67 

SLEEPING-CAR  PHASE,  The 105 

SOLUTION,  a  Reasonable 94 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  LAW,  The    129 

SPLITTING   COMMISSIONS    43 

STAGE,  The,  and  Tipping 68,  72 

STATISTICS  of  Tipping 

money  given  in  tips 8 

number  of  tip-takers 7 

tips  in  N.  Y.  City 17,  22 

tips  in  other  cities    21 

tip-taking  classes    19,  20 

STATLER  HOTEL,  The  . 97 

STENOGRAPHERS    86 

STEWARDS,  Ship 66 

STREET  CLEANERS   118 

TENNESSEE  LAW,  The 136 

TIPPING  and  Americanism 11,  87,  150 

"        and  democracy     7,  38,  48,  113 

«        and  labor    144,  145 

"        and  morals     96,  158 

and  patriotism    56 

and  personal  liberty 10,  13 

"        and  public  opinion   162 

"         and  slavery    11,  50 

"        and  the  Bible    45 


174  INDEX 

TIPPING  and  the  caste  system 47 

"        and  the  courts 126 

and  the  wage  system    75,  107 

arguments  for    26,  28 

"        and  a  training  school  for  graft  .  42 

in  private  houses 64 

"        in  "  the  movies  " 69 

"        Laws  Against    123 

Literature  of,  The   58 

Merchants  opposed  to 44 

on  ocean  voyages 65 

"        on  the  stage 68 

"        psychology  of,  the 47 

real  reasons  for 51,  54,  55 

recipients  opposed  to   .    39,  144,  150 

"        remedy  for  ...    55,  94,  95,  103,  158 

"  TIP  PRIVILEGES  "  Sold 90,  152 

TIP-TAKERS,  Partial  List  of   19 

numbers  by  cities 21 

"  TIP  TRUST,  The  "    92 

"  TRIBUTE,  Not  One  Cent  f  or  " 17 

WAGES  VERSUS  TIPS 75,  107 

WAITER,  The   27 

"          can  he  be  a  gentleman  ? 37 

WAITERS,  European   150,  156 

WAITRESSES    59 

WALSH  COMMISSION,  The Ill 

WASHINGTON  LAW,  The    122 

WAY  OUT,  The    158 

WISCONSIN  BILL,  The 125 

Y.  M.  C.  A.,  The 104 


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